What is your leadership for?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is the Junior Senator from the State of New York.

Running for public office places you in a spotlight that is white hot. Being clear why you’ve made the choice to run in the first place is table stakes for creating the life you want to live and the legacy you want to leave behind.

In too many companies and for too many people, leadership is seen as the thing that comes next for those who are willing to stick around. The inevitability of rising up the org chart into a role that comes with more everything is too rarely challenged by company or individual.

Leadership is a privilege. An opportunity to make the biggest difference for the most people, that most of us will ever have.

Marty Baron of the Washington Post described it as a responsibility.

Mark Thompson, when he was at the New York Times, described leadership as the act of running towards the gunfire.

Cecile Richards, formerly of Planned Parenthood, described herself as blessed to have been one of the really privileged few that could do what she thought needed doing.

In industries where awards, wins, and results are to the fore, and success is often measured by how many and how much, I’m hoping that some of these conversations will also stir thoughts of what.

What do I want to make better? What do I want to change? What difference do I want to make for the people around me?

Because, as my work continues to evolve and my understanding continues to deepen, what I increasingly know to be true is that the awards, the wins, and the results are directly connected to the whats.

That the leaders who are clearest about what difference they want to make are the ones who have the most evidence of having made it.

Literally and figuratively.

So, what is your leadership for?