If I were to ask you to rate your fitness level on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you do it?

What parameters would you use to determine the categories or the measurements?

Would you assess your fitness by using a heart rate measurement?
Would you use a Body Mass Index measurement?
Would you use endurance as a measurement?
Would you make note of your flexibility?
Would you have a game plan for knowing if the outcomes you measured actually assessed you as “fit” or not?

If in the past, you casually focused on your physical fitness at all, you would probably be able to speak to any one of these categories, if not most of them, because you’ve made a conscious effort to avail yourself of this information.

After all, you KNOW having answers to these questions often means you’re cognizant of your health and therefore you make stronger and more focused decisions. You become more fit by information default.

The same principle applies when we assess our leadership fitness. We become more fit by information default.

The unfortunate part is we have a tendency NOT to assess our leadership fitness with as much regularity as we do our physical fitness. Therefore, we typically don’t have the information we need in order to be the strongest, most focused leader we can be.

But all is not lost! Determining your leadership fitness can be painless and it’s certainly going to be a heck of a lot easier than decreasing your BMI score; I promise! Run with me here…(Ha, I crack myself up!)

1. Get a PULSE on your leadership:

  • When was the last time you did a multi-rater or 360 Assessment?
  • When was the last time you asked for open feedforward information?
  • When (if ever) have you self-assessed and then gave that assessment to someone you trusted for their thoughts?

2. Reduce your leadership BMI (cut down the fat):

  • What tasks are you doing that are fluff? 
  • Do the tasks that make your leadership lean and focused – Delegate or Dump the rest

3. Focus on your ENDURANCE:

  • Are you tracking on the HIGHEST INCOME and HIGEST IMPACT producing projects and deliverables?
  • Or are you focused on the urgent but not always important?
  • Leadership is a marathon, not a sprint. Are you poised for endurance or are you headed for burnout?

4. Flex your FLEXIBILITY:

  • Can you give up being the expert to be a guide to others?
  • You don’t have to bend over backwards to accommodate, yet there is always opportunity to stretch and limber up some.


Becoming LEADERSHIP fit, like becoming PHYSICALLY fit, takes work, effort and focus. If it was easy, every leader would do it. 

They don’t.
You will. 

What ONE exercise above will you put in to your regimen today to elevate your LEADERSHIP FITNESS?