How do you measure the effectiveness of a leader? This quarter’s financial returns? Maybe. Turnover? Maybe. Morale? Maybe. Ability to make progress toward the mission? Maybe. It’s a tough question to answer. It’s tough because there is no way to effectively measure the person, we can only measure what they have left in their wake. The wake being the effect of their leadership style and behaviors on the people and processes around them. Like a speedboat on the water, all leaders create a wake of some kind. If we are looking to measure your ability to lead, we end up looking not at you, but behind you. What did you leave behind? A path of destruction? A path of inspiration and production? Once we become acutely aware of how we disproportionately influence the workplace as a leader, we can better tune our actions and behaviors to achieve the results we really want.