I attended my first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting last week.
I had been meaning to go to an AA meeting for quite some time but never got around to making it a priority. My next-door neighbor is a recovering alcoholic and has attended AA for decades. A casual and friendly invitation to attend one of his meetings opened the door for me to finally check it out for myself.
I attended as a learner and observer, not a participant. I’ve long admired AA’s work in helping people successfully overcome their addiction to alcohol. Thankfully, that’s not a challenge I face.
I learned—or more accurately, was reminded of—several important principles of AA that translate to being a successful leader.
Serve Something Bigger Than Yourself
AA teaches its followers that they need to serve something bigger than themselves and their addiction. Shifting their focus from self-gratification to living for a greater purpose gives the recovering alcoholic more fulfillment and direction in life.
The same principle applies to leaders. Leadership is about being of service to those you lead. It’s not about basking in the limelight of your own achievements and glorying in the power you have over others. The best leaders move from being self-focused to being others focused.
Be Honest with Yourself
A critical step in recovery for alcoholics is to “do a searching and fearless moral inventory” of themselves. This requires a person to drop all the excuses and rationalizations about their drinking and be completely honest about their situation. It requires amazing courage to do this inner work.
In a leadership context, my experience has been that most leaders haven’t had the opportunity to do much, if any, introspective work on their purpose as a leader. It’s incredibly powerful and rewarding to define your leadership point of view. When you can identify the key people and events that shaped your leadership, the values that drive your behaviors, and the expectations you have for yourself and others, it gives you greater clarity and direction about how you want to impact others through your leadership.
It Works if You Work It…So Work, Work, Work!
In the meeting I attended, whenever someone made the comment “It works if you work it,” in reference to AA’s successful twelve-step recovery process, others immediately replied by chanting, “So work, work, work!”
Great leadership doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of putting in the work, day after day, to learn, grow, and mature as a leader. Formal leadership training, on the job experience, mentoring, and coaching are all ways we can continue to develop our leadership skills, but it requires having a plan and sticking to it.
I left the meeting with a sense of gratitude and appreciation for those in attendance. I was impressed with their bravery, honesty, and authenticity. I couldn’t help but think how much leaders would benefit by applying these same principles and practices to their own lives.
