Learned from John Bendixen, this leadership model provides a unique perspective. Explaining that many leaders work so hard towards, and focus so much, on their overall purpose or assignment in life, that they often neglect their personal-life leadership and shortcut their public leadership training-ground to fulfill their purpose. But an inverted triangle like this will topple.

To clarify:

Personal Leadership refers to everything from family relationships, personal financial management, managing one’s own health and fitness, values and personal time-management. It takes time to build, requires consistent effort, and making choices to take the more difficult path and stay the course as opposed to taking the easy way out.

Public Leadership deals with life and leadership in the corporate and/or public sphere. It includes integrity in the workplace, work ethics, commitment, excellence, upholding values even when being pressured to compromise, and the example a leader sets for others in the public environments s/he functions in.

Purpose Leadership is that place of fulfillment all strive to; that place where every leader makes an impact that changes the world around him/her and determines the future. This is every person’s ‘moment’- as long (years) or as short (days) as that may be, to fulfill their assignment on earth.

Consider for example someone who obtained huge public visibility, influence and authority, because they are greatly talented, but with very poor personal leadership (e.g. bad family relationships, poor control over their personal finances, a very unhealthy lifestyle)… Although s/he might lead others positionally, they rarely have the enduring support of their followers and in the end the whole thing topples – compromising themselves and those they lead. A good example would be so many Hollywood stars who shot to fame but ended up addicts with broken relationships and directionless. Another example are corrupt politicians who brought down multitudes with them and caused great destruction to nations. The price is high in the end…

On the other hand, when a leader has put in the effort to build a strong family and manage their personal life well, that personal leadership will automatically propel them into public leadership. It is easy to follow a true leader who leads by example and lives the values. Refining their ability to influence and lead others in their public leadership space, when they finally get to the time for fulfilling their purpose, they raise others up with them. Because the foundation is firm they don’t topple under the pressure and they don’t take anyone down in their wake. These are the leaders who save nations or companies or departments or families – depending on their sphere of influence. They paid the price upfront and the reward is great in the end. Here we find military leaders who won great battles and socio-political or religious leaders who liberated peoples. We find leaders of nations and leaders of organisations, and we find moms and dads who raised these leaders.

It looks like this:

These are the ones who take the habits, learnings and wisdom from their own small pond into the public arena and finally to that place where it changes the world (whatever that world may to them).

At this time when the whole world is facing a pandemic it does force us to consider what we have built personally, and where we can continue building (or need to start building). And it makes me grateful for the true public and purpose leaders we have to lead us out into the very changed world that is taking shape around us.