DEVELOP YOURSELF FIRST
LOOK WITHIN FIRST
If you read any best selling book on leadership, you’ll find within it a range of common principles which explain how to become a strong and effective leader. One of the central tenets is that it all begins on the inside, with you. The best leaders take themselves seriously and act with high degrees of personal responsibility. They know that the way they think, speak and act all affects both their personal performance, and that of those around them.
These two simple questions help you connect more with the concept of personal responsibility. Firstly think about the people who are in your team or business for a moment, then reflect on question 1.
1. Why would they want to follow you?
Now comes question 2, which is a little more pointy.
2. What could you do differently or better, to make yourself easier to follow?
If you look at the media today you’ll only find a handful of people who live by these questions. You’ll find most leaders spend their time trying to fix the world outside of themselves, whilst remaining blind to the impact their actions have on making the world how it is. All of this stems from the psychological principle of projection. The world we see outside of ourselves is simply a projection of what is going on inside ourselves. And until this is truly understood, a leader will typically focus on trying to fix what she or he perceives to be wrong ‘out there.’ Whereas having an outward focus is a vital part in the process, it’s important for leaders to look within first of all.
Leadership is an interesting body of work to study and if you’re in a leadership role, I highly advocate you dedicate a portion of your time to learning about it. If you have already signed up to your free 5 day DO 1 THING program, you’ll have been emailed a tool which helps you define your leadership purpose. This is a great start to developing your self awareness. If you haven’t yet signed up to the program you can do so above.
THEN SEEK WAYS TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE
Once you’ve got clear about your purpose, the next step is to create a series of intentions of how you want to develop and grow over the next 6-12 months. This free conscious leadership ebook will get you started. The instructions of what to do are in the book and in simple terms, it helps you assess yourself today plus consider how you want to improve your leadership performance.
Performance is defined as ‘the process, of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task or function’. As mentioned above, the cause and effect of performance is complex. Consider that you have 2 worlds. The first is your inner world, which is made up from all your thoughts, beliefs, values, intentions and emotions. It is the inner source from which everything flows. And the next is the outer world. This is what you say, or the words which come out of your mouth, and also what you do.
The cause of everything you are responsible for begins on the inside, then turns into words and actions and these land as results. If you are happy with your performance as a leader keep doing more of the same. If you are dissatisfied with any aspect of your performance, it is a fruitless exercise trying to simply change what you are doing. What you need to do first is ask ‘how are my beliefs affecting my actions?’ When you have clarity about how your subconscious mind is driving your actions, then you are ready to change and improve. True leadership work takes courage as it requires us to look into the mirror and explore how we can personally improve.
SEEKING HELP?
If you are looking to develop yourself or your people, there’s a range of ways I can help. Manifestor is a 10 week online personal leadership program, which teaches people how to turn their visions into reality. You can find out more about it here. I have built and facilitated over 100 leadership development programs for SMEs and big businesses like Westpac, NSW Government, Aol, Yahoo and Salesforce. If you want to find out more about my workshops and mentoring, email me here and let’s schedule a time for a coffee and a chat.
