Leaders Go Above and Beyond - Go the Extra Mile!

Have you ever been in a situation where you saw a leader take a specific action, yet you had no idea "why" or "how" the leader decided to take that specific action? Well, I have too! That's why I decided to study various leaders that I have worked with over 22 years and before long, I started to get insights into why leaders do what they do. More importantly, I started to understand that what a leader does is much deeper than the specific action he takes.

The action is normally tied to an outcome or result that she wants to accomplish, yet it may not make sense when viewing it from a "present" moment perspective. This is why most people are standing around scratching their heads, watching leaders execute, yet they do not understand "why" the leader is doing what she is doing.

I wanted to understand "why," so this article is the 2nd of over 100 leadership insights that I have experienced in my career and that I intend to share with other leaders. This article focuses on leaders going above and beyond... going the extra mile.

Leaders understand the need to give something extra, above and beyond what's expected. Success for a leader resides on the other side of what's expected. If a leader is satisfied with what's expected in results or performance, he can never expect to lead his people past average results.

Your people will use you as a barometer to determine how much they are willing to give. If you give average efforts, your people will feel justified in giving average efforts as well. However, if you give above-average efforts, your people will notice and before long, you will see that they are giving more than expected as well. Call it competitiveness, human nature or whatever - people will perform commensurate to what they perceive others are doing - especially the leader!

The key is to identify what the expectation is... and then figure out how to exceed it. You will be surprised at the results! You will marvel at how, by stepping your game up, your people will slowly, but surely start to step their games up as well... and exceed expectations.

Napoleon Hill, of Think and Grow Rich fame, stated that, "... there are no traffic jams on the extra mile." The extra mile... the road less travelled and the road that leader's must get on and stay on.