By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to leverage your leadership influence. Reading time: 3:11.

Robins in a nest

Leaders get stronger by lifting others up.

Maybe that’s why Albert Einstein said only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. And Winston Churchill said: “We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what give.”

Leaders give of themselves to make every day pay day. The more they give, the more they get, as author Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.”

Championing others a leader invariably unearths hidden resources, leverages differences, fosters greater productivity and mines increased profitability.

But in championing others, leaders know only too well that their date book is as important as their checkbook; their time as valued as their money. No wonder poet Kahlil Gibran said: “You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”

Datebook is as important as Your Checkbook in making every day pay day

And the most effective leaders give of themselves 24/7. In fact, their spirit of helping others unconditionally is the heartbeat of America as author Alexis de Tocqueville noted in his 1845 book Democracy in America:

“Among democratic nations all citizens are independent and feeble; they can hardly DO anything by themselves and none of them can oblige his fellow men to lend him their assistance. They all, therefore, become, powerless if they do not learn voluntarily to help one another….”

Leaders in general and champions in particular voluntarily help each other. Tocqueville is right when he points out that our sense of independence comes from our sense of interdependence. As Tocqueville writes: “Feelings and opinions are recruited, the hearts enlarged and the human mind developed only by the reciprocal influence of men upon another.”

You scratch my back and I scratched yours. Reciprocal influence. Cooperation. Teamwork. Engagement. That’s why championing others can be so rewarding, so fulfilling. You get more than you give. Poet Emily Dickinson espouses the championing spirit in all leaders when she says: “If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall NOT live in vain. If I can ease one life the aching or cool one pain. Or help one fainting robin into his nest again. I shall not live in vain.”

Indeed leaders don’t live life in vain. They inject life into the veins of an organization. They champion others. And make every day pay day.

Today’s ImproveMINT

Champion others to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

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