The previous chapters have focused on helping you win the war of your own well‐being—to conquer the chaos that causes a lack of Peace.

This chapter is designed for people who lead others—an executive or boss, coach, or parent. It is for anyone who leads people or is responsible for taking care of others.

Through the years I have observed radical transformation inside people who finally got it. They woke up to the reality that they are responsible to help others get to the next level.

Taking Responsibility

Who are the People you are responsible for leading? To be responsible means having an obligation to do something or having control over or care for someone as part of one's job or role. That job could be a paid position like a team leader, manager, or executive. Or, that responsibility might be as the oldest child toward aging parents or simply your role as mother or father.

Leadership is responsibility. It means you take care of the people you lead. That is what leadership is. Leadership means you are 1) responsible for doing your own work (to perform) while 2) helping others do their roles (helping them perform).

When Steve Cockram and I wrote The 100X Leader, we highlighted the Sherpa on Mt. Everest as the best metaphor for leadership. The Sherpa must be the healthiest climber on the mountain while helping others climb. If they are not healthy, the climbers won't respect them or follow them. Because the Sherpa have a genetic predisposition to the altitude, they can climb higher and faster than most climbers. The climbers trust them because they are the healthiest and most experienced on the mountain.

In fact, our team at GiANT has created an Altitude Assessment that allows leaders to test themselves to see their level of trust and leadership with their People. The assessment highlights two numbers:

1. Your personal performance as a contributor (either at work or home). It gives you an option to assess how well you perform personally on a scale of 1 to 10.
2. Your leading other people. How well do you help others perform while you are performing? The assessment gives you an option of 1 to 10 as you honestly assess your ability to lead others.

You might give yourself an 8 out of 10 on how well you perform from a work perspective. As it relates to leading others, you might give yourself a 6, so you would be an 8–6. If you were to do the same assessment at home, you might state that you are a 7 out of 10 in your role at home and possibly a 6 in leading your kids/family. That would make you a 7–6 at home.

Once you recognize the power of this simple Altitude Assessment, you can begin to see your organization differently. How many employees do you have at your organization? How many team leaders do you have (people who lead people)? This list represents the number of Sherpa you have in your organization—the ones who are helping take your employees to the next level. I recommend drawing circles for the number of teams in your organization, putting the team leader's name in the middle of those circles, and then having them answer the Altitude Assessment for themselves while you also do it. Some might be an 8–4, while others could be a 6–7. Total up all the first numbers on their personal performance and divide by the number of team members. Do the same for the leading people numbers and see the average Altitude Performance of your Sherpa (your team leaders). This will show you what needs to happen to take them to the next level. You can take the Altitude Assessment for free at summit.giantos.com/store.

What does this have to do with the Peace Index? It means that your number needs to be the highest possible to have the influence and endurance to help others. If you have a low Peace Index while others have a higher number, you could drag others down. It could also affect the way you lead others. Conversely, if your Peace Index is balanced and you become healthier, you will have influenced others more consistently. Remember, no one wants to follow an unhealthy Sherpa up the mountain.

That puts the impetus on you to do all you can to be the healthiest to help others perform at higher levels while working on climbing at higher levels. If they don't see you as healthy or healthier than them, they won't want to respect your leadership in their life.

The Number

Remember the conversation about everyone having a number? Your employees walk in every day with a number over their heads. The number could be affected by heart palpitations the day before or from news of one of their children. It's true what they say: we are only as good as our weakest child! It is incredible how drama occurring in one or two circles can produce lower results, and you may have no idea why.

The same is true for our families. Every family member has a number over their head. Leading our families is more complicated because school and work can wear us out during the day, and the family tends to get the leftovers. That means that the numbers we experience when everyone gets home could be lower than at the start of the day. Keep that in mind as you lead your family.

Every person is impacted by the cause and effect of other people's decisions. When a child decides to fight the bully because they have had enough, it affects the parent employee of that child. When an employee's spouse chooses not to be healthy and needs special care, that affects you at work. Every action has a reaction. Every cause, an effect.

Smartphones and technology have only sped up this cycle. It is easier than ever to pass along frustration and drama through text messages, memes, and frustrating phone calls. That means we are aware of issues immediately anywhere we are. The old world of compartmentalization is gone. It is virtually impossible to separate work from home.

“Back in my day,” says the old geezer, like me. We would leave school or go on a business trip with no email, text messages, or cell phone calls to affect us. Life moved differently than today, which affects how we lead. We are living in the digital age of 24/7 text cycles. Thankfully we aren't tracking sneezes in loved ones, but the technology can undoubtedly do that.

Leader Boundaries

Leaders are not licensed counselors, but they can counsel. I have had other moments in my leadership journey where deeper issues were at play, and I didn't realize it until later—divorce, abuse, mental health issues, etc.

A leader is not supposed to hold therapy sessions with their employees. That is why there are licensed professionals to ensure people receive the help they need to handle the complex issues in their life. Still, successful leaders can learn how to ascertain appropriate information to understand what is going on with their team members and help them overcome it to get to the next level, where applicable.

This is what liberation looks like—to help people achieve higher levels of Peace related to their Purpose, People, Place, Personal Health, or Provision. A great leader is a fighter—they take care of their People. This type of leader digs in just enough to know if the employee needs high support or high challenge and is adept at calling them higher to the level they should be.

Leaders are consistent helpers. They help people overcome their issues on the way to everyone becoming healthier. They even help train their teammates to teach others to become healthier.

This is what the world needs more of: selfless leaders fighting for the highest good of those they lead. If we had millions of these types of leaders inside teams and organizations and families, we would experience different levels of Peace worldwide.

Is that you? Is that your intent? If so, you are who I am called to serve. My Purpose is to raise up Liberators around the world—the freedom fighters we have been talking about. As a co‐founder of GiANT, we have built certifications and systems to help scale these leaders inside every organization and equip coaches and consultants to bring Peace wherever they go. Liberation becomes a lifestyle that impacts every circle of influence in your life.

Conquering Chaos

Chaos is everywhere, but it doesn't have to be. It is your choice to either conquer it or allow it to reside in your mind, body, and spirit. It will cause you to go to war with the things set to destroy you.

Ronald Reagan was a fantastic uniter who wasn't afraid of a fight. He said it like this: “Peace is not absence of conflict; it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.”

There are external conflicts around every turn. It is the internal conflicts we are trying to tame. The Peace Index helps you know where you need to work on yourself. It is also a beautiful tool to help others grow.

The truth is that people are messy, full of chaos and unrest. They lead complex lives full of drama because of the cause‐and‐effect reality of actions and reactions. It is not your ultimate responsibility for their growth. They will want to grow to become healthier. For example, the Sherpa on Mt. Everest never carries anyone up the mountain. Your job is to call them up, show them how to build a game plan, and walk alongside them. If they choose to walk off the mountain, that is not your responsibility.

Your role is to be a healthy leader who fights for the highest possible good of the person you lead until it becomes a reality. Your job is to take care of your People.