But each year at Easter, I make it a practice to clearly and openly convey the core place from which my leadership originates. 

Every leader should be able to clearly answer the question, “Why do you lead?” For me, the answer lies in these words from the Bible…

“If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”

^{1 Corinthians 15:14}

If Christ has not been raised, none of these leadership roles matter, including:

• A compelling vision

• A team-building exercise

• A set of core values

• A dynamic Zoom meeting

• An effort to align the team

• An AI strategy

• A clear decision

• A mentoring and coaching relationship

• A solution to a tough problem

If Christ has not been raised, none of it matters.

But Christ has been raised. So it all can matter.

He is risen.

He is risen indeed.

Happy Easter.

Good judgement allows you to size up a challenging situation, and to make the right call.

Good judgement allows you to examine a fork-in-the-road moment and to discern the appropriate path.

And because good judgement is so vital a component in leadership, any dynamic that can weaken your judgement must be quickly identified, and eliminated. Which is why you need to pay particular attention to these five hidden forces that will undermine your leadership decisions:

1. Rage

Have you ever made your best leadership decision while in a fit of rage? Of course not.

When anger gets the best of you it can cause you to lash out and to make a quick, even savage decision. But this is not you at your best. Whatever sparked the rage, let it subside. Cool down, and then lead.

2. Fatigue

Drowsiness and good judgement never go together. When you allow yourself to become sleep-deprived, suddenly the weight of simple decision-making can feel ponderous and even over-whelming.

Take a nap before you make a decision you’ll regret.

3. Public opinion

You believe the right decision is “No”. Everyone else seems to think it should be “Yes”.

They can’t all be wrong, can they?

Actually, they can be.

All of those voices can mess up your judgement. Listen to advisors and take into account public opinion. But leadership isn’t a democracy. Tune out the noise and make the call.

4. Hubris

The moment you begin to feel entitled or invincible, your good judgement has already been compromised.

Humility can be the best friend of good judgement.

5. Pressure

Pressure is a fact of life in leadership. But unbridled, unrelenting pressure will hamper your better judgement.

Deal with the pressure first. Then deal with the decisions.

In challenging times, you will face situations in which your good judgement will play a key role in determining the best outcome.

Armed with good judgement your chances of coming out ahead are greatly enhanced. So pay attention to these hidden forces.

And don’t let them rob you of your most important leadership weapon.

Leadership Intelligence involves:

• Being able to ‘read the room’, (whether in person, or in Zoom)

• Discerning the level of anxiety in the team,

• Noticing how distracted they are by external forces.

Like Emotional Intelligence, or Relational Intelligence, Leadership Intelligence is a nuanced level of discernment that enables a leader to:

• Create a healthy, sustainable culture,

• Build a team who can function and even thrive in uncertain times.

What does Leadership Intelligence look like?

1. It can recognize sagging shoulders, and will step in to offer genuine encouragement

This does not mean becoming the personal counselor for the team. It means paying enough attention to their emotional well-being that you can tell when someone is struggling. And it means talking it through if necessary.

2. It can tell when a team just needs a change

When times are tough, sometimes team members can respond well to a change of responsibilities. Give people a new project or a temporary new assignment. The change of pace can sometimes do wonders.

3. It can spot needless irritations, and weed them out

Sometimes the removal of minor irritant can make a huge difference. You likely can’t fix everything, but there could be small improvements you could make that will result in improved morale. Is your team working remotely? Just boosting their wifi capacity can be huge.

4. It can listen to what is not being said, as well as what is being said

“Are you feeling okay about everything?”

“Yup, all good.”

Leadership Intelligence can read tone of voice to discern if there’s something deeper going on. Maybe they won’t say every concern that’s on their mind, but Leadership Intelligence can often hear it nonetheless.

So learn to pay attention to those vibes that don’t show up in a formal report.

They could be telling you more than any spreadsheet you’ll ever read.

I once was talking with a new team member as part of his on-boarding process, when I mentioned to him that “excellence” was one of our core values.

“Oh no,” he sighed. “Not again. I just came from a team that espoused the ‘excellence value’, and the culture there was so stressful; but everyone accepted it as part of the excellence value.”

The fact is, many organizations declare that they are pursuing excellence, always with the most noble of purposes. For some, this leads to a culture of empowerment, and for others it leads to a neurotic perfectionism.

The difference can be found in a healthy understanding of what the excellence value really is, and what it means. If you want to move towards a healthy view of excellence,  there are three important distinctions that must be understood.

In recent years a virtual movement concerning trend has sprung up in leadership circles where it has become increasingly fashionable to announce, “I hate meetings!”

When You Say ‘I Hate Meetings’ Your Team Hears Something Different

Leaders, whether we’re talking about Zoom meetings or in-person gatherings, we need to stop saying this. Because when we say, “I hate meetings”, what our teammates hear is, “I don’t want to spend time with these people.”

Really.

Think about it. If you overhear your team leader look at their appointment calendar and say, “What? Another meeting with the team? Why do I have to always meet with these people?” you could easily translate that ranting into, “I just don’t like spending time with them.”

It’s Not About Good Meetings vs Bad Meetings

Now, many leaders will protest at this point and will say, “It’s only bad meetings I don’t like.”

Fair point. And there are thousands of books and articles written about how to hold good meetings. This is not one of those articles.

Do They Know How You Really Feel?

When your team believes you don’t like having meetings, they believe you don’t want to spend time with them. And it hurts your team’s culture, and ultimately their performance.

Your team runs on the fuel of your personal approval and even affection for them. In fact, your team runs on the fuel of your love for them.

And one of the surest ways to pop that balloon is to make it known that you don’t like spending time with them.

So, by all means, make sure your meetings are effective, well-run and purposeful. Whether on Zoom or  in person, even if your meetings suck, don’t let your team know you don’t like to meet with them.

Let them know that the highlight of your day is to be able spend time with them.

And let’s turn those “I hate meetings” chants into “I love my team” rants.