Michelle Obama spoke at the recent opening of the Obama Presidential Center. Three things she said deserve attention from every leader, no matter their politics.
1. People have overwhelming goodness, when greed doesn’t cover it up
“That’s where the truth of this country lies, not in grabbing as much as we can get for ourselves or knocking folks down to prop ourselves up, but in the overwhelming goodness, the relentless striving, the quiet dignity that is inside all of us.”
Your job is to see the inherent goodness in yourself and your people, and build from it. That is practical, love-powered human leadership in action.
2. What legacy actually means, vs. what most leaders keep chasing instead
“A lasting legacy isn’t an award or a name on a building or a number of zeros in a bank account, but the difference we make in one another’s lives.”
The question Obama is raising is which legacy mainly drives your leadership, awards and accolades, or making a meaningful difference.
3. The power of really seeing your people at their best
“When we truly see each other, when we strive to bring out the best in ourselves and one another, oh, there is no limit to how high we can go.”
When you genuinely see the people around you, not just their output, but who they actually are, something opens up that cannot be manufactured by any other method.
Window Into a Leadership Shift: Basketball, Yogurt, and Harlem
When NBA All-Star DeMar DeRozan got the call that his father had died, he planned to catch the first flight home to Los Angeles. Before he could leave, coach Gregg Popovich came in and cried with him for two hours. Popovich built five NBA championships on exactly that — seeing his players as people before he ever saw them as assets.
Hamdi Ulukaya heard there were refugees in nearby Utica who needed work. They didn’t speak English. They didn’t drive. He hired them anyway. Today 30 percent of Chobani’s workforce are immigrants or refugees. He chose to see capable people where others saw a logistics problem. Everything else followed.
Geoffrey Canada founded the Harlem Children’s Zone on one conviction: the kids in Central Harlem aren’t the problem. The system around them is. While experts said the achievement gap was structural, generational, unfixable, Canada’s 100-block cradle-to-college pipeline proved otherwise.
Instant Thought Experiment
Think about the operating assumption you actually run on when it comes to your team. Tune into your genuine beliefs about their motivation, their capability, their basic goodness. Now assess what you believe about your own basic goodness. Consider how those beliefs may affect your leadership.
The foundation Michelle Obama named — the overwhelming goodness, the quiet dignity, the relentless striving already inside every person — is exactly what the Amare Leadership Lab helps leaders access, strengthen, and build from. It’s a small-group experience for leaders who are ready to go deeper, and to lead more fully, from the inside out. Go to amareleadership.com/amare-leadership-lab to learn more.
Mirror: Two Questions to Reflect On
༄ What assumption are you actually leading from when you walk in the room — genuine trust in the goodness of your team, or something closer to managed skepticism?
༄ When did you last truly see someone on your team? Not what they deliver, but who they actually are.
Door into Action: 4 Amare Leadership Steps to Lead From Goodness
1. Choose your assumption, consciously. Before your next team meeting, write one sentence: “I lead this team from the belief that my people are ___.” Fill it in honestly
2. Name the grab. Look at the last three decisions you made that felt a little off. Ask honestly how much was driven by genuine care for your team, and how much by self-protection or status.
3. See one person this week. Pick someone on your team and ask them a question that has nothing to do with their job. Listen long enough to actually learn something.
4. Let legacy redirect one decision. Take one decision you’re sitting on this week and ask: which version of this actually makes a difference in someone’s life? Then empower the decision.
Amare Team Talk
Bring this question to your next meeting:
“When do you feel most genuinely seen here — and when do you feel most invisible? What’s the difference between those two experiences?”
Let the conversation go wherever it goes. Don’t manage it.
Lead From What’s Already There
Michelle Obama didn’t introduce a new leadership model at the Obama Presidential Center. She pointed at the foundation that was always there and asked whether we’re willing to actually lead from there.
The overwhelming goodness is real. In your team. In every person who shows up and does the work. You don’t have to manufacture it. You just have to stop leading like it isn’t there.
Love,
– Moshe
Today’s Amare Wave Wednesday Quote
“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”
— Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leader and Baptist minister
(“The Drum Major Instinct” sermon, Ebenezer Baptist Church, February 4, 1968)
Click here and read more Amare Wave Wednesday newsletters on related topics:
4 Ways to Be a Regenerative Leader in a Complex World
One Big Reason Trader Joe’s is So Successful
Limiting Assumptions Limit Your Success: 5 Amare Steps To Better Assumptions, Strategies, Results – The Magic Leadership Triangle
How You Treat People Makes the “Golden Rule” Your Most Powerful Leadership Tool
6 Powerful Steps to Lead with Ambition and Not Let Greed Take Charge
Original article published on Inc.com.
