Last Friday, I had the privilege of hosting a broadcast of Live2Lead 2016 at The Lodge at Welch Allyn. This was our second Live2Lead event, and I am already looking forward to Live2Lead 2017. One of the speakers, Simon Sinek, shared a story of a time when he was staying at the Four Seasons in Las Vegas and decided to go into the lobby to purchase a cup of coffee. The barista who made his coffee was a young man whose name was Noah. According to Simon, Noah was fantastic, engaging and having fun. When Simon asked if he liked his job, Noah replied that he loved his job. During the conversation, Noah also revealed that he had a second job at another hotel and that he hated that job. At his second job, Noah said that he basically went through his shift trying to keep his head down and get a paycheck.

Two different hotels, two very different employees, yet the exact same person. How can this be? How can the same person be two very different employees? Noah went on to add the following: "At this job the managers that I see throughout my day ask me how I am doing and if there is anything they can get me or anything that they could do to help me do my job better. At my other job the managers just go around making sure we are doing everything right and trying to catch us doing something wrong. Here at the Four Seasons, I feel like I can be myself."

As I reflect on my years in leadership, I realize how many times I was the manager at the "other" hotel and how few times I would have been the manager at the Four Seasons. Too often I got caught up in making sure people were doing things right, rather than helping them to do things right. In reality, those were times when I was not leading at all; I was managing. Management is transactional; leadership is transformational. We have the opportunity to transform people's lives and in turn, transform our companies.

We spend a great deal of time trying to find the right employees. Perhaps we should spend more time growing in leadership.

Live to lead and lead well!

I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.