The Driving Force Behind Leadership: A Small Story About a Big Aha Moment. And a Mirror that made Things clearer.
Several years ago, an important change was coming up at my site: the position of operations manager needed to be filled. For me, the decision had already been made. Ever since he joined three years earlier, I had had one employee in mind who seemed perfectly suited for the role.
A few months before the planned handover, I invited him to my office to inform him about the promotion. I wanted to give him the opportunity to prepare for his new responsibility through targeted coaching.
To my surprise, he immediately had a coach in mind and asked me to hire her. No problem, I thought. I just wanted to meet her first.
The conversation with the coach quickly became more than a formal alignment. She had formed a picture of my employee and, as it turned out, of me as well.
In the middle of our discussion, she asked a question that caught me off guard: “Bernd, what is the driving force behind your work? What motivates you?”
I don’t remember what I answered. But I remember exactly what she said next: “My sense is that you take joy in seeing other people grow and succeed.”
I was stunned. And then silent. Because she was right.
In that moment, I realized that Developing Others was not just a leadership tool for me. It was a value. Perhaps even the central value of my professional identity. A value I had lived without ever consciously naming it.
Looking back, I understood that this conversation had shown me something essential: leadership always begins with an inner compass, often long before we can name it ourselves.
I hadn’t noticed that employee by chance. I had seen his potential because it brings me joy to see people grow. The coach simply made that value visible. I’m very grateful to her for that.
And she showed me how valuable it is to allow yourself to be unsettled. I had only wanted to check whether she was a good fit for my employee. Instead, she held up a mirror and I was willing to look into it.
That’s the quiet irony of this story: I wanted to enable development, and suddenly I was developing myself. Not spectacularly, but sustainably.
And now I’m curious: Which values truly drive you in your work, beyond roles and expectations?
I’m Bernd Scharbert, and I support leaders in finding their way through challenging situations with strong presence, success, and alignment with their own values. If that resonates with you, I’d be happy to hear from you.
