Great leaders are willing to sacrifice the numbers to save the people. Poor leaders sacrifice the people to save the numbers.
Leaders volunteer to go first into danger. Their willingness to sacrifice for us is the reason we're inspired to follow.
The trick to balance is to not make sacrificing important things become the norm.
There is no decision that we can make that doesn't come with some sort of balance or sacrifice.
In the military, they give medals for people who are willing to sacrifice themselves so that others may survive. In business, we give bonuses to people who sacrifice others.
If someone's performance is down we do not say, 'Hey pick up your things here.' We do not yell and scream at them, we say, 'Are you okay?' The idea of putting our financials goal aside for one minute to express empathy for the human being for that work and saying, 'Are you okay?' That is part of the sacrifice.
When a leader makes the choice to put the safety and lives of the people inside the organization first, to sacrifice their comforts and sacrifice the tangible results, so that the people remain and feel safe and feel like they belong, remarkable things happen.
A great leader will never sacrifice the people for the numbers.
Time and energy. Those are the most valuable sacrifices leaders can make.
We call them leaders because they go first, because they take the risk before anybody else does, because they will choose to sacrifice so their people will be safe and protected.
Would anybody be offended if we gave a $150 million bonus to Gandhi? How about a $250 million bonus to Mother Teresa? Do we have an issue with that? None at all. None at all. Great leaders would never sacrifice the people to save the numbers. They would sooner sacrifice the numbers to save the people.
