Leadership is not a logical task
It’s not 2 + 2 = 4.
It’s not step 1, step 2, step 3… success.
Leadership is a paradoxical endeavor. You’re constantly navigating what seem like contradictions. You’re in the middle of situations that others have strong opinions about—issues with more perspectives and angles than any one leader can fully grasp. It’s a continuous balancing act: weighing, evaluating, discerning, choosing, and deciding.
I have a wise father. He’s led much—over many years.
And still, he often repeats a line from a poet:
“The little that’s needed, the heart has always known.”
That’s not a way of oversimplifying complexity. Leadership can be very complex.
But the quote brings us back to something essential:
Good leadership is human.
This has always been central—or deeply missed.
And for newer generations of employees, it matters even more:
“I don’t just want to work—I want to thrive at work.”
That well-being comes from many factors, of course.
But as a leader, you can either be a driver of that wellbeing—or not.
So, what does it take to lead in a human way?
Start by living in yourself—not in your title.
And keep watch over where you stand in relation to three key tasks:
- Leading yourself
- Leading others (influence)
- Carrying responsibility
1. Lead yourself
To create change outside yourself, you must begin inside.
Self-leadership is how you choose to live your life. It requires that you get to know yourself—including the hard-to-face parts of your story and your inner world. And it requires that you set a direction: a purpose, a path, and a destination for your life and work.
What do you want?
How will you go about it?
Where are you headed—and why?
When you know yourself, you’ll begin to recognize the situations where your strengths can shine—and when your weaker sides might try to take the wheel.
2. Lead others (influence)
Leading others is about the ability to connect, to inspire, and to unite people toward a shared goal and common values. A good leader understands the power of influence—and its pitfalls.
Healthy influence is mutual. It’s rooted in self-awareness, in thoughtful communication, and in a genuine care for the connections between people.
We’re not interchangeable pieces on a board. We’re not boxes of skills you can move from one task to another.
We’re human beings—each carrying stories that shape how we show up in every situation.
We’re full of emotions and thoughts—sometimes clear and helpful, sometimes clouding everything we see.
When work becomes demanding, or teams face change, we don’t need someone who leads with a title.
We need someone who knows how to lead—human to human.
3. Carry responsibility
I believe this:
Responsibility is the mark of human dignity.
A cow is not responsible for what it does.
A human is.
To take away someone’s ability to carry responsibility for their choices is to make them something less than human.
So carry your responsibility—with joy.
Even when it costs you.
Because it makes you whole.
Stand tall in your mistakes.
Walk humbly in your wins.
Tomorrow, you might fall in a ditch.
The day after, you might help someone else climb out—because of the lessons you took responsibility for when you walked through your own failures.
To be a responsible human being is to own your whole self.
Your thoughts.
Your behavior.
And the impact they have.
When a team is shaped by humanness—when we show each other that, yes, we’re people after all—it creates the safety we need.
Safety to take big leaps.
And safety to admit face-plants.
A good leader goes first in this, too.
As a responsible example.
Think about it:
When was the last time your leader said,
“I’m sorry. I got that wrong.”
That doesn’t make them a weak leader.
It makes them a human one.
Yes—I do believe I have a wise father.
“The little that’s needed, the heart has always known.”
Start there.
And never leave it behind.
You’ll gather many tools and experiences along the way in your leadership—but lead with heart, always.
DREIESKIVA|Roald Kvam 
Legg igjen en kommentar