Yesterday a potential client asked me about the essence of my work, and I answered him with a question: “Who are the executives that you admire the most?”

He stopped to think about it for a minute, and then he named the person at the top of his list—we’ll call him Joe.

I asked him to explain why Joe was such a great leader, and he sat back in his chair to consider my question.

“Well,” he said, “Joe is a great guy. You can really depend on him, and he gets shit done. But more than anything else, he’s just completely himself. He can speak in front of large crowds and motivate everyone in the room.”

“Would you say that Joe knows what to say and do at just the right time?” I asked him.

“Absolutely. He’s always on point. I feel like he is very genuine and wants to help. There’s no falseness. He’s always right there with you. It’s a quality I don’t often see in the leaders I come across.”

“Well,” I said, “This is what I do—I help executives tap into greater range in their leadership. When you are tapped into your full range, you are able to pull out the right tools at the right time—you don’t get stuck as often. You are genuine, and know what to do no matter what the circumstance. You become a more powerful leader.”

As I explained this, it seemed to make sense to him. And this is what I see leaders struggling with more than anything, time and time again. It’s easy enough to be good at one thing, but it’s the situations that come up where you don’t know what to do that start to test the limits of your range.

An example of this was with a CEO I was coaching the other day. He was a very “get it done” kind of guy, and his way had worked for him up to this point.

But now he was seeing that he needed his team to go above and beyond, and the only way he was going to be able to make that happen was by getting more real with them.

He started to tap into his vulnerability. He began to tell them what was really going on for him. He started to say the things that his former “impenetrable self” would have seen as weak.

And the team responded positively. They got more committed. Not just to the projects, but to being the best they could be. This leader, by being vulnerable, had led their hearts—not just their minds.

This impacted revenue growth. Product creation. Time to market. All by one little shift this leader made.

He expanded his range—and so can you.

I have a question for you: What’s one area where you’d like to expand your range?

Get in touch and let me know!