Leadership Requires a Particular Focus

What do you need to know to be a good leader? One senior executive, speaking to a roomful of business leaders, opened his talk by asking this question and then sharing the results of an intriguing focus group.

The focus group was composed solely of 95-year olds who were asked only one question: 'If you had your life to live over, what would you do differently?'

The speaker pointed out that this was an intriguing question - particularly for these men and women who had seen more life than most. Then he shared their top three responses:

Number one: "I would spend more time in reflection."
Number two: "I would risk more."
Number three: "I would invest more of my life in things that will live on
                         after I am gone."

It's easy to see that although these insights speak about life in general, they also speak about leadership. The responses became a springboard for the speaker to deliver his key message on leadership: it's not just about what you need to know, it's also about how you need to be.