Blog on Leadership – LeadershipJot.com

ESSE QUAM VIDERI – To be, rather than just seem to be.

I adopted this Latin phrase as my personal motto nearly a decade ago. This phrase is also used as the motto for the state of North Carolina as well as multiple universities and institutions. I like this phrase because of the emphasis on actually “being” what you present yourself as or what you want people to “perceive” you to be. What people perceive is what people believe, but when reality differs from perception, trust and confidence is lost – often permanently.

A quote which I recently came across builds on this. Will Durant, in The Story of Philosophy (1926), wrote, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” Durant wrote this memorable (and often misattributed quote) in summarizing part of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.

You cannot wake up one morning and expect to be an effective leader. Effective leadership is developed over time, through experience, and sometimes even through failing as a leader – learning what NOT to do. To be an effective leader, you need to develop leadership as a habit – an acquired behavior that naturally comes out to the extent of almost being involuntary. This is true for achievement in any area of your life – professional and personal. To achieve excellence in any area of your life, start today to develop the habit of excellence. To become an effective leader, start today to develop effective leadership as a habit. To be, rather than just seem to be or just try to be.