Mindful Reflection
March 15, 2025
Achieving the Triple L of Leadership
Over the years, I’ve learned that the most effective leadership moments rarely begin with answers. They begin with attention.
In healthcare, there is a well-known framework called the Triple Aim – a disciplined effort to simultaneously improve patient experience, improve population health, and reduce cost. It’s ambitious, difficult, and demanding. Most importantly, it requires focus. You can’t pursue one aim at the expense of the others without weakening the whole.
Leadership works the same way.
Through years of working with clients, colleagues, and teams, I’ve come to believe that strong, sustainable leadership also requires a kind of discipline – a commitment to three practices that must be pursued together. I call it the Triple L of Leadership: Listen. Learn. Lead.
When any one of those is missing, leadership suffers. When all three are present and intentional, relationships deepen, trust grows, and people become more successful.
Listening Comes First
If leadership begins anywhere, it begins with listening.
Early in my career, I thought listening meant waiting my turn to speak. I was wrong. True listening is not passive. It is purposeful. It requires setting aside assumptions, resisting the urge to prepare a response, and giving someone your full attention.
Listening is how we get to the truth.
When I say “the truth,” I don’t mean facts alone. I mean understanding someone’s needs, motivations, concerns, and aspirations. That level of understanding doesn’t happen accidentally. It requires patience, curiosity, and humility.
Have you ever walked away from a conversation feeling unheard – like the other person was present, but not really listening? Most of us have. And if we’re honest, most of us have been on the other side of that experience as well.
Listening well means asking thoughtful questions, reflecting back what you think you’ve heard, and inviting correction. It means caring more about understanding than being understood. Without that foundation, everything that follows is built on shaky ground.
Learning Deepens Understanding
Listening opens the door. Learning walks through it.
When we listen well, we begin to learn – not just about the situation, but about the person. Learning requires engagement. It requires curiosity that goes beyond surface-level answers and a willingness to challenge our own assumptions.
Learning also flows in the other direction.
After taking the time to understand others, leadership calls us to help them understand us—our perspective, our capabilities, and how we can add value. That exchange must be mutual. Too often we assume that because we’ve spoken, we’ve been understood. Experience tells us otherwise.
Real learning happens through dialogue, not monologue.
It shows up when we ask clarifying questions, invite feedback, and pay attention not just to words, but to tone, body language, and engagement. Confusion, hesitation, or withdrawal are signals – not interruptions. When we ignore them, we miss opportunities to build clarity and trust.
Learning is not about proving how much we know. It is about discovering what is needed.
Leadership Shows Up in Helping
Listening and learning prepare us for leadership – but leadership is ultimately revealed in action.
For me, leadership is inseparable from helping.
Helping others succeed is not a tactic; it is a mindset. It reflects a belief that leadership is not about control, position, or authority, but about service. When people know they have been heard and understood, they are far more open to collaboration. Trust grows. Resistance softens.
Helping requires intention. It requires effort long after the initial conversation ends. And it requires consistency. Leadership credibility is built not in grand gestures, but in follow-through.
I’ve learned that practice does not make perfect – but practicing good habits with good intentions does make us better. Over time, people don’t just hear what we say; they experience who we are. That experience determines whether they are willing to follow.
The Power of the Triple L
Listening. Learning. Leading.
These are not steps to be checked off or skills to be mastered once and set aside. They are disciplines to be practiced daily. There are no shortcuts and no substitutes – not technology, not intermediaries, and certainly not avoidance.
When we skip listening, we lead based on assumptions. When we stop learning, we lead from ego or comfort. When we fail to help, leadership becomes hollow.
But when we commit to all three, leadership becomes relational, resilient, and real.
The question is not whether we hold a title or influence others—that is already true in some capacity for all of us. The real question is how we are using that influence.
Are we listening with the intent to understand? Are we learning with the humility to adapt? Are we leading in a way that genuinely helps others succeed?
When those answers are yes, leadership stops being something we talk about—and becomes something others experience.
Leadership will change your life — I guarantee it.
