Why do you do what you do?

Someone asked me last week ‘why do you do what you do?’. Great question. (Maybe you have seen Simon Sinek’s TED talk – Start with why – in which he claims people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

I care about developing leadership because I have seen first hand what happens with an absence of leadership. I’m thinking about two particular situations.

I lived and worked teaching English for two and a half years in a jungle refugee camp on the edge of a war zone on the Thai-Burmese border. There I experienced the total waste of human potential that results from bad leadership. That experience enraged and inspired me.

Closer to home, through almost 20 years in the corporate world I witnessed the impact poor leadership had on individuals, teams and on whole organisations. No doubt you have seen this too, because if your organisation is representative of most organisations in Australia, two  out of every five people would rather be somewhere else doing something else with someone else#.

How do we let that happen? It’s ridiculous! People join an organisation or take on a new role full of enthusiasm, wanting to make a difference. Then gradually that enthusiasm is lost. They deserve better than that. Your customers and stakeholders also deserve better.

And that’s why I do what I do.

That’s why I am obsessed with helping leaders get of their own way, lead with greater impact, and develop Fearless Leadership.

Why do you do what you do?

Go fearlessly