Commonsense Leadership

Chapter 2Recognizing Your Assets and Liabilities

It's possible that I have created some confusion regarding the identity and characterization of real leaders, so to gain some clarity, we will talk concretely about what leaders need to do on a daily basis. The following chapters will paint a comprehensive picture of a leader.

Everything leaders are able to accomplish is based on their individual assets and liabilities. Assets are the positive things that make us good at what we do, while liabilities interfere with our achievement. Both can be reflected by specific and measurable factors. It's very important that we're honest when listing assets and liabilities.

What do you think of when you see the terms assets and liabilities? If you're like most people, you immediately think of accounting and financial statements showing total net worth as measured by money, stocks and bonds, property, and other material things. In this chapter, however, assets and liabilities are defined in less-tangible terms.

Every person, regardless of his or her material assets, has assets and liabilities related to leadership. On the positive side of the ledger are the things we do well, and on the negative side of the ledger are the things we would like to do better or remove from our balance sheet all together to become better overall.

Recognizing these assets and liabilities is particularly important for those with leadership aspirations because leaders are evaluated every day. Colleagues notice how ...