Leadership As a Blessing
Being a leader is a challenging job. And I am not even talking about being a leader in life-and-death situations such as the military or emergency service work. Plain old business and organizational leadership are rough, and it comes with many responsibilities, challenges, and hardships. Despite the challenges, the blessings of being a business leader are abundant and immensely rewarding on many levels.
As I started this post, the first thing that came to mind from my background in the hospitality industry was the ability to serve. As a leader, I occasionally needed to remember all the people I helped and their trust in me. We get caught up in daily frustrations of staff performance, customer habits, purveyor challenges, and many other obstacles and irritations. But remember, as a business leader, you have the opportunity to add value to so many stakeholders!
You, as a leader, are in a position to benefit the greater community you serve, the staff that counts on you for their paychecks, and the customers that depend on you for products and services.
And if you do not own the business, the owners have trusted you to make decisions that benefit them and the stakeholders financially. You have the opportunity to add value, whether financially or by creating a positive work environment for your staff, exceptional customer service to your guests, or a product that fulfills your customers' needs. Only some get this opportunity! This is a great blessing!
We make a difference. As a leader, you have the power to make a difference in the lives of your staff and customers. I have had many mentoring conversations with staff that helped to guide them in their lives. Sometimes, it was to grow in the organization we both were involved in, and sometimes it was to leave the organization to progress on their own dream.
You can create experiences that your customers and staff will never forget. You may rush an order to a stressed-out customer or produce a beautiful wedding in your hotel that your guests will always remember. You may help a staff member care for a sick child or parent by accommodating irregular schedule requests. I even count the times I have let go of employees who did not want to work in my organization but were too fearful to pursue what they truly wanted as making a positive difference. You, as a leader, have the blessing of having the power to make a difference in people's lives that they may remember for the rest of their lives.
Being a business leader also provides an opportunity for personal growth and learning.
True, leaders have daily challenges, lots, actually, but they are learning opportunities. When I started my leadership journey, I made many mistakes to put it politely, because I was in it for me as a young restaurant manager. But I learned that every day you have the chance to develop new skills and expand your knowledge.
As a leader of others, you even have the opportunity to practice your philosophical or spiritual or religious values, getting stronger in whatever your faith is. Having authority over the work and personal lives of others through our decisions provides us with a valuable opportunity to learn how to balance our own desires with the generosity of accommodating the needs of others. With leadership, we are blessed to grow every day into the person we want to become.
We create a legacy through our leadership.
As listed above, all these opportunities we have as leaders will create a legacy. If we make wise decisions, we will be proud of our legacy in old age. And even if you have not always made the best decisions (as I most certainly have in the past), as a leader, you can be confident that you will have more opportunities to correct your mistakes.
As a leader, you can create a lasting impact on your business, staff, and customers. You can create a legacy that will live on long after you have moved on to other opportunities.
Yes, yes, yes, being a leader is a challenging and demanding role! We cannot pretend it is not without challenges, but it also comes with many blessings. As a leader, you have the opportunity to serve others, make a difference, learn and grow, and create a lasting legacy of which you can be proud.
So embrace the challenges and focus on the blessings and opportunities for growth that come with being a leader. Leadership is indeed a blessing, and as I get older, I am grateful for this chance of my lifetime of leadership.