You are here.

Let me break that down for you. And we will start with you. You chose a career focus. You hold a position. You possess skills, experiences and knowledge. You have a personality and moral bearing. Put it all together, and you are a person of calling, character and competence.

Are, which is related to the word “be,” as in “to be rather than to seem;” as in, “doing flows from being.” Being involves becoming. All through childhood we are asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Sometimes we knew and sometimes we discovered, and oftentimes, looking back, our “are” seemed inevitable. We must do what we are.

Here. You did not start here. You will not end here. Whatever your “here,” you were led to it and you will move from it. The only here we do not move from is what we call the final resting place. Even then…

Does this sound too philosophical? Give me a few more lines.

You are a leader. But what kind? I have been around long enough to live through several trendy definitions of leadership. I have served with several styles of leadership. I have tried a few styles on myself and eventually came to terms with my own leadership fit. Have you?

The most popular definition of late seems to be “leadership is influence.” True, but leadership is far more than influence. I’m not arguing that influence isn’t a part, but it doesn’t merit the whole.

If your main definition of leadership is influence, then you may be missing a key reason why leadership for you isn’t what you thought it was cut out to be. The difference between a happy leader and a frustrated leader is how the leader defines and lives out leadership.

I know, because for years I taught that leadership is influence. And I was pretty frustrated.

Influence is one of the dynamics behind your calling, character and competence. You observed, you admired, and you learned from people you wanted to be like (or who you wanted to like you). Influence is great, even essential. May yours have been more positive than negative.

But who you are today and where you are today has more to do with leaders in your life than influences on your life. Because that is what leaders do. They get you somewhere. They drive you, not against your will, but in somehow seeming to know your true will. And so you have followed.

You get frustrated as a leader not because you are failing to influence people but because you aren’t getting anywhere.

Leaders are masters of three dynamics with people and organizations:

Leaders rally

Leaders craft

Leaders drive

Obviously, they don’t do it alone. But leaders understand these are the three arenas of their work.

As a result:

Leaders are relational

Leaders are transformational

Leaders are missional

Influence is a beautiful essence within each three, but it certainly is not the whole of it.

CIOs and technology leaders have not been mastered in the arts of rally, craft and drive.

Each is of equal importance. Together they all cover the gamut of leadership disciplines. But the one that is at the heart of leadership discouragement and low team morale is drive. We signed up (rally). We are working plans (craft). But are we really getting there (drive)?

What are we doing?

That’s the question your team asks. That’s the question you wonder about when you don’t want to keep doing what you have been doing. I’m not talking about tasks and projects. We have plenty of completed checklists; they feel good, but they don’t fuel you.

As a CIO you are a driver. Did you know that the ancient Greek word for leader could be translated “forwarder?” Did you know that the Old English word for leader is traveler? Or that the word has often been associated with guide?

What do forwarders and travel guides do? They take people from “here” to a new here. They don’t just influence people to go, but they also get them there.

The idea of a leader as a driver has been given a bad image: We think of the autocratic leader, the dictator, the abuser who only cares that an end is reached. We see bodies littered along the way. We imagine the coach who berates or the president who fires quickly and demands unchecked loyalty.

Or...Or we think of the person in our life who saw our calling, shaped our character and developed our competence. Who challenged us greatly but inspired us more; who held us accountable but deemed us as valuable. We think of the person with whom we accomplished more than we thought possible, and who in taking us there was leading us along the way, in the way where more is caught than taught.

I owe my life to a lot of people who influenced me. I love them and I honor them. I owe to fewer people those who truly led me, who were in the trenches, who came alongside when I was wounded, who refused to give up on me but also who wouldn’t let me make everything about me. They kept my eye on where we were going, and, in following them, I arrived.

Do you hesitate to say the words, “Follow me?” It is what leaders say, because leaders understand that we all follow someone or something, and if we are going to get from this here to a new here, someone has to know where we are going, how we get there, and then drive to it. That someone is you.

The CIO Driver needs to master a number of skills. One is telling the truth without getting fired. That is why CIO Mastermind is offering a free webinar in May on  “How To Tell The Truth Without Getting Fired.”

And I want your help. I want to dial in on what matters to you. On our contact form, would you answer the following questions:

• How has truth-telling backfired on you?
• What questions do you have about truth-telling?
• Is it easier to tell the truth to your upline, peers or downline, and why?
• How did someone tell you the truth in a way that made a positive difference for you?
• What is the primary hesitation to speaking the truth?
• Why do you avoid conflict?

Truth-telling requires wisdom, skill and art. Like me, you have likely done it well and likely not as well. So let’s learn together.

1. Your input will help me deliver on the following about telling the truth:
2. How to know when to speak, when to ask and how to remain silent.
3. How to use questions to lead people to discover the truth.
4. How to use data and how not to use data to explain the truth.
5. How to understand why your truth doesn’t lead to another’s change.
6. How to navigate tough talks.
7. What to do when people are speaking the truth to you.
8. How truth-telling will make you more appealing to others.