It’s impossible for you as a leader to instruct everyone you lead every day in what to do and how to do. Trying to will leave your team uninspired and unmotivated.

The enabling principle “People Thrive When They Own Their Work” helps unlock the power of a clear Vision. Giving the people you lead enough clarity in what you’re trying to achieve and the space to achieve it helps them to:

It’s challenging to develop this kind of motivation without the true sense of ownership that comes from bringing your expertise to bear on meaningful challenges.

It can feel natural to lead by telling, but you won’t inspire true forward motion without encouraging a strong sense of ownership.

How are you talking about the work your team is doing?

Have you made connections between each of their individual jobs and how that contributes to their growth, to the team’s growth, to positive impacts on the entire organization?

How can you make those outcomes clearer to them in a way that allows them to take on ownership and move things forward?

Trying to *do* too much can actually lead to you *achieving* fewer things than you’d like.

The enabling principle “Doing Less Lets You Achieve More” reminds you to focus first on what you want to achieve and to limit the energy spent on what you “do” to laser focus on your goals.

While some might think that saying “yes” to every opportunity will help you succeed, that can often lead to you being overwhelmed. Filtering what you commit to based on what you want and need to achieve will help ensure your success.

Are you and your team accomplishing the things you need to achieve? Write down all the things that you and your team have on your plate right now and then ask yourself "why are you doing each one?" Is it aligned with your Vision or is it a distraction?

Simply taking a bunch of actions can add up to nothing…or worse! Actions without outcomes can take you in the wrong direction.

The enabling principle “Bias to Outcome > Bias to Action” centers your focus on what needs to be achieved. A bias to outcome helps align and filter actions in service of achieving meaningful results.

It’s difficult to get alignment if everyone is focused solely on “doing” and checking tasks off of lists. Forward motion towards realizing a vision requires a bias to outcome.

Are you talking to your team about *tasks* or *outcomes*? If you're talking only about tasks, how can you start changing the dialog?

As you start focusing more on outcomes, is your team working on tasks that aren't aligned with those outcomes? How can you change that?

“To the person who does not know where they want to go there is no favorable wind.” -Seneca

“Leaders Provide Vision” is the first core principle of leadership. To be clear, a Vision is more than a pithy vision statement .

A Vision:

Without this clarity, teams and organizations have no “favorable winds” and struggle to make meaningful progress.

Are you working with a Vision that meets the three criteria above? If not, what can you do today to start changing that?

Want to improve your leadership skills, one step at a time? In the Principle-Driven Leadership Podcast, Seth Dobbs, (published presenter, trainer, and author) shares insights and leadership advice based on his years as a C-suite executive and leadership coach.

These insights center around three core principles of leadership:

Applying these principles and other support concepts will help you grow and develop your own authentic leadership. Each episode will provide a few insights and takeaways to help you improve your skills in small ways each week.