Yesterday I had a profound experience.
It started with a small question: what the heck do I stand for as a leader?
Like everyone else having an idkfa moment these days, I decided to test my principles using an LLM and the collective wisdom of people that have thought about this for much longer than I have (and without the crutch of AIs).
Cue our panel of experts:
- Peter Drucker – Management pioneer who developed foundational concepts like management by objectives and knowledge work
- Simon Sinek – Known for the “Start With Why” framework and leadership that inspires action
- Brené Brown – Research professor specializing in courage, vulnerability, and empathy in leadership
- Jim Collins – Author of “Good to Great” who researches what transforms companies from average to excellent
- Daniel Goleman – Pioneered emotional intelligence application in leadership effectiveness
- John C. Maxwell – Leadership expert behind “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”
- Patrick Lencioni – Organizational health expert focused on team dynamics and leadership clarity
- Adam Grant – Organizational psychologist specializing in originality, motivation, and meaning
- Amy Edmondson – Harvard professor known for psychological safety research in high-performing teams
- Marshall Goldsmith – Executive coach focusing on behavioral changes that drive leadership success
Their mission, should the AI role-playing as them was to accept it, was to give me a series of questions that would help me articulate my authentic leadership approach.
Starting with Peter Drucker, what questions would he ask me if he was guiding me through this process? Have the next expert review and iterate on the previous one’s answer, until they’ve all contributed and we’ve reached a final set of questions that would allow me to distill my philosophy in one paragraph.
And so they did.
When I asked the gang to review my answers, a particular comment stood out:
Simon Sinek would commend your purpose-centered approach but might challenge you to articulate why this purpose matters to you personally to make it even more compelling.
(the two books of Simon siting at my bookshelf, still unread, gave me disapproving looks)
Out of curiosity, and a bit of guilt, I pulled on that thread:
Ask Sinek to guide me through this via a dialog where he asks me a question, I respond, and then he considers my answer and moves to his next question. This dialog should continue until we’ve succeeded in articulating why this purpose matters to me personally.
This journey you’ll have to experience for yourself, trust me.
As for where I ended up, see the description in my profile.
In the meantime, I’ve got some reading to do 😉
references:
Photo by Yosef Futsum on Unsplash