Growth – Page 11 – Walk Into the Future

Leading from the Front

We are all leaders! The actual title you have is not as important as understanding your impact on others you interact with. There are people in this world with the ‘title’ that implies they are the leader, but they don’t ‘move the crowd’.

Leading from the front can be done by everyone.

I continue to highlight the key to effective leadership is self-awareness. Self-awareness is needed in order to lead from the front in your daily activities. The self-aware leader understands strengths and weaknesses, have a fully developed self-view and demonstrate they understand how their interactions impact others (direct reports, clients, colleagues, etc.).

Things a leader can/should do:

Inspire people
Empower people
Lead change
Share a vision

So, if you can inspire people, empower people, lead change and share a vision, you are a leader. Again, you don’t need a specific title to be viewed as a leader. Don’t give away your influence because a specific title is not attached to you.

encouragement_leadership blog

We can all lead! Look around your current work environment. Who do you inspire daily? How do you inspire these people? Your level of self-awareness within the work environment creates empowerment.

Do you need anyone’s permission to inspire your students, clients, colleagues or direct reports? I don’t think so. Now you need to identify/understand how you inspire others. Are your actions positive and consistent? Do you create an environment conducive for communicating new ideas?

I believe empowered leaders initiate, act, and adjust within the work environment. These things are available to all of us. I promote to direct reports, ‘Mistakes happen, just don’t make the same mistake twice’. Use situations like this to create an environment where your people can learn and grow.

Leveraging your ‘Why’ can also impact how you lead from the front. Identify why you show up every day and then ensure your leadership decisions are made to positively impact your ‘Why’. Simple enough, huh? It can be!

How do you lead from the front daily? What adjustment are needed to ensure you lead from the front in your work environment? Thanks!

Permission granted; Go ahead and free your mind

‘Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude.’

(Fredrick Douglas)

I laughed a bit at myself when I did some actual research on this Fredrick Douglas quote. Originally heard this in an old Public Enemy (PE) song, ‘Show em what you got’ from the late 1980’s. Turns out PE was dropping knowledge as usual by integrating activism into their music to help listeners gain a new level of consciousness.

But let’s leverage this quote into a bit of ‘mind magic’ to help with your Walk into The Future.

How many times have you talked yourself out of accepting a new challenge? How often do you stay stuck because you can’t free yourself (mind, body, soul)?

It may be time for the multitude to travel down the road.

Give yourself the freedom to accept and then conquer new challenges. Most times people view challenges with dread and then go into negative self-talk mode. Why is that? You haven’t freed your mind enough to let yourself move forward with the challenge.

You may want to view potential challenges as opportunities available to you.

Go ahead and give yourself permission to release your ‘preconceived’ thought formations and leverage the clean slate available once you free your thought process.

A free mind allows you to:

Start with a clean slate
Concentrate
Eliminates stress
Jump start positive self-talk
Strategize for the task at hand

There will be other benefits of allowing yourself the freedom to clear your head from time to time. We all carry mental clutter throughout the day. How often do you make the time to clear this clutter to enhance your day? A meditation practice could be leveraged to help with this process.

Go ahead and give yourself the permission to experience the mental freedom you need to soar. It’s okay to get out of your own head for a bit.

What things do you need to ‘clear’ out of your head to experience a new level of freedom? Write them down to help you Walk into The Future!

Success

“I find the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”

(Thomas Jefferson)

Success2

What does success look like? How would you define success? How did you gain success in your life?

These were a few questions a branch on my tree asked me a few weeks back. To be fair, I asked several branches on my tree for topics they have interest in to see if I can develop into a blog article that would benefit them in their Walk into The Future.

It took be awhile to wrap my mind around the concept of success—I view myself as enjoying my Walk into the Future, but success must be on display in some format for me to be able to control this walk. So, I thought back to some advice I received as a young Air Force instructor that was gifted to me:

‘Be where you’re supposed to be;

Doing what you’re supposed to be doing;

When you’re supposed to be doing it.’ (U.S. Air Force Mentor, 1997)

Thinking about the topic of success allowed me to reflect on this advice and it follows me into every activity I pursue.

This advice on face valuable is simple. But reflecting on the concept of success allowed me to see how the advice I received years ago has allowed me to find successful outcomes in most endeavors I tackle. I’ve used this advice over the years but now realize it has been the foundation of my daily interactions—every day and every project!

This foundation has allowed me to form outstanding working relationships with direct reports and peers because I’m always focused on “where, what, when”. This provides my interactions with a level of consistency to ensure successful outcomes. Some may say they give 110% percent effort when facing a task or challenge. I’ve never attributed the phase ‘110% effort’ to myself when taking on a task. I view each task or challenge with a focus to get things done with maximum effort within a minimum amount of time. The advice I was gifted years ago provided me with a formula to get things down with an eye towards the integrity of the process.

I talk with students I work with on how they can become visible and viable when seeking employment. The concept of “where, what, when” is used in my conversations to give them a simple formula to work with when engaging with recruiters in their search for employment. This concept is relatable for students and provides them with guidance towards a successful outcome when engaged in the recruitment process.

So, to come back to the questions I was asked on success:

What does success look like? How would you define success? How did you gain success in your life?

Success varies from person to person. My view on success is having the ability to navigate a situation or task where the outcome exceeds the level of expectations. Success is defined as having the mental capacity to adapt, think and build on past experiences to navigate the situation or task.

I gained success by using the “where, what, when” concept daily in all interactions.

Examples: supervision, mentoring, speaking engagements, volunteering.

In each of these examples, being where I’m supposed to be, doing what I’m supposed to be doing, when I’m supposed to be doing it has led to successful outcomes.

My last view on ‘my’ success is tied to the people (branches) I work with. I feel successful when I watch and hear how well others are doing in their professional and personal lives. My success is a direct reflection of their success—the more successful they are the more successful I will become. Kind of a large circle of success!

So, what does success look like for you the reader? Curious for your thoughts—thanks!

“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it”.

(Maya Angelou)

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Balanced Leadership

balancedleadership

“Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy”.

(Norman Schwarzkopf)

I try to leverage things I’ve learned over time from diverse leadership principles daily. This quote signals leaders are concerned with positive outcomes not who should receive the credit. How many times have you heard a leader exclaim what ‘they’ did but maybe not provide full credit to the team who helped along the way.

Balanced processing is an Authentic Leadership variable that encourages leaders to seek the ‘big’ picture within the work environment before making decisions. This concept provides a ‘full view’ of the current situation and solicits input to ensure decision making is done with sound information. Leaders can leverage balanced processing to build trust, encourage professional growth for direct reports and provide the organization with reliable decision-making techniques.

How can leaders initiate balanced processing in the work environment?

Look at both sides of a situation
- Positive and negative
Show the ability and willingness to gather multiple viewpoints
- Not just what you want to hear
Actively seek different views and professional opinions
Eliminate a defensive or negative position when receiving information

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Work place impact of balanced processing

Leaders who leverage balanced processing actively seek information from others (direct reports, colleagues, etc.) then make decisions based on collected information. This decision- making model highlights the importance of feedback to direct reports and encourages them to seek feedback for themselves. Balanced processing helps build trust in the work environment—it emphasizes ‘all’ opinions are valued and expected. The concept also eliminates personal bias from the decision-making process, everyone in the organization has input prior to the final decision. Finally, balanced processing allows for the development of objective action plans in decision making.

Balanced processing encourages direct reports to be engaged in the work place. Leaders are viewed as approachable, trusted and influential because they want and seek feedback in the decision-making process.

*Leaders should also explain they value input from all but the decision made must be the best for the organization. *

My Authentic Leadership research identified balanced processing as the variable that best explains job satisfaction for direct reports. They want to be involved!

How can you leverage balanced processing in the work environment? What impact would a leader who displays balanced processing have on your daily outcomes? Curious, thanks!

balancedleadershipchess

(Play chess, not checkers!)

The Humble Leader

close up photography of a cellphone — Photo by Prateek Katyal on Pexels.com

The concept of the humble leader sounds contradictory to what most people envision in the workplace. The traditional leadership view (real or perceived) cast leaders as hard charging, take no prisoner and only out for themselves.

Humility: the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one’s importance, rank, etc. (Dictionary.com)

A true leader understands you lead people and manage programs. Not the other way around.

A humble leader displays a level of self-awareness within the workplace to ensure growth for everyone. A humble leader does not seek or need the spotlight to highlight the great work of the team. The humble leader can inspire better team cohesion, eagerness to learn and a better performance outcome for their teams.

The process of leading by example and a leader with a humble approach when working with individuals and teams is an excellent example of this concept. This consistent approach provides a template for others to follow and allows the team to perform knowing the true nature of their leader.

Humble leaders:

Build relationships
Listen
Enable trust in the workplace
Show appreciation
Reflect
Display authenticity

A humble leader puts the needs of others before themselves. This could be a simple process of ensuring direct reports have the tools needed to perform their duties. Sounds simple but how many times are work assignments delegated with deadlines, but instructions/tools needed to perform are not provided. The humble leader looks to provide tools needed to ensure overall team success. They are also not afraid to ask questions to ensure the assignment is fully understood. Asking follow-up questions does not show weakness but shows the leader cares and wants to optimize time spent on a specific project.

Being a humble leader does not imply weakness. Humble leaders are always looking to improve themselves and focus on larger, organizational goals—not just their individual goals.

A leader is best when people hardly know that they exist. (Lao Tzu)

What impact does humility have within your current work environment? How would this concept enhance overall productivity in the work environment?

The Self-Aware Leader

Self Awareness2

“If we agree on everything, one of us is redundant”

(Colin Powell)

This is one of my favorite leadership quotes from Colin Powell. This statement identifies true leaders want and encourage feedback from their direct reports.

This concept provides the leader with information needed to make sound decisions to help organizational growth. New and ineffective leaders miss the opportunity to engage with direct reports on decision making for multiple reasons. Some can be attributed to inexperience, lack of trust, and lack of self-awareness. All can be overcome with concerted efforts to develop as a leader and engage within the work environment. Leaders who are self-aware can begin to mitigate the inexperience and lack of trust mentioned earlier.

How do you become a self-aware leader?

Look inside and become introspective
Identify your strengths, weaknesses, values and how others view you
Understand how your self-view impacts others and the work environment
Knowledge of how your interactions (positive or negative) influence direct reports
Ensure actions and decisions are based in an authentic framework
Strive to build authentic relationships with everyone within the organization
Adjust based on interactions and feedback from others
Advocate for a continuous learning work environment

Work place impact of the Self-Aware Leader

The self-aware leader improves the work environment by modeling the attributes of self-awareness. This modeling allows direct reports to see and understand the importance of self-awareness. The leader actively acknowledges strengths and weaknesses. This provides a framework to enhance staff members’ development within the work environment by catering to staff strengths and working to mitigate weaknesses.

The self-aware leader provides direct reports an engaging work environment where they know they are valued and input is encouraged. This attribute showcases a leader who fully understands how they are viewed within the work environment.

Finally, the self-aware leader provides an organizational foundation for success by creating additional self-aware leaders.

How can you model self-awareness in your daily interactions? What benefits would self-awareness bring to your work environment?

Self Awareness

Building Resiliency

Resilience Bottom

Resilience is that affable quality that allows some people to be knocked down by life and come back stronger than ever (Psychology Today).

Building resiliency can provide a new window towards stated goals and help adjust your mental outlook. There will still be days where you will face challenges, but resiliency helps adapt to the challenges and come out stronger.

There are multiple techniques to use to build resiliency. The American Psychological Association (APA) list the following:

Make connections
Avoid seeing crisis as insurmountable
Accept change
Move towards your goals
Take decisive actions
Look for opportunities for self-discovery
Nurture a positive view of yourself
Keeps things in perspective
Maintain a hopeful outlook
Take care of yourself

These are great reminders to add to your toolkit to help your personal and professional growth.

Two stand out to me: Move towards your goals and nurture a positive view of yourself.

Goal Setting

Setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-focused, time based) goals can enhance your journey towards resiliency. The SMART goal process will create a platform to view progress and adjust as needed. SMART goal formation shows if you are truly moving towards your goals and highlights growth.

Nurture a positive view of yourself

This trait comes back to self-awareness and the ability to foster positive self-talk. We can be our own worst critic in life, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Look for ways to give yourself credit for your progress (SMART goals) and generate positive thoughts (Irie) needed to enjoy the day. There will be bumps in the road, but resiliency helps you navigate the tough times and come out on the other side better than before. Continue to practice positive self-talk as you interact throughout the day.

Building resiliency is an on-going process. Practice resiliency daily and adjust as needed. It will be well worth it as resiliency will help you power through your day.

References

The Road to Resilience. (n.d.). Retrieved September 24, 2018, from http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/road-resilience.aspx

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