According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australians drink 613,333,333 bottles of wine each year*. Sometimes the label says ‘Consume responsibly’. We all have a sense of what ‘consume responsibly’ means, even if we do have occasional lapses.

What if leadership came with the same label? Do we have a sense of what it means to ‘lead responsibly’? What would a leadership booze bus be checking for?

How about things like:

• Communicating responsibly. As a leader you are heard differently. How well are you taking that into account when you ‘think out loud’ or offer flippant comments about people’s manner or performance?
• Behaving consistently. Does your walk match your talk? People will model what you do and not what you say.
• Creating a clear purpose. People want to contribute to something greater than themselves. Do your people know why they are there, and doing what they are doing? (Do you know why you are there?)
• Empowering people. Do your people feel valued and empowered to do the work they have been employed to do? Are they engaged and contributing fully? Are you asking to create insights, or telling to secure compliance?
• Building or bruising. Is your feedback building your people’s awareness about their performance, AND their confidence to develop? Does a performance review with you leave people inspired and thinking of ways to develop, or dreading coming back to work tomorrow? Are you developing your people?

So take care. There may be a leadership booze bus around the next corner. Will you be over .05? What’s one thing you could decide now to lead responsibly?

Go fearlessly

* http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/latestProducts/4307.0.55.001Media%20Release12013-14