I invested a great deal of energy over the last couple of years in researching, writing and developing a leader’s protocol – a way to bring out the best in every employee.
I discovered how to really know what your people want from you, how the x-factor of effective leadership takes form and the return you can expect on effective leadership for your team and you. You’ve gotten to know much about my work over the past couple of years via these blogs posts.
After doing work of such magnitude, you can imagine it would be very common to take time out to reflect before taking on the next step. I get that, and I have done that. In my own reflection though, I’ve come to realize that perhaps I just hadn’t gone far enough, that the job isn’t done. It’s still a no-normal world, and while providing new rules of engagement is powerful leverage, I believe I’ve effectively ignored the other half of the organizational influence equation – the leaders themselves.
It is time to bring out the best, and bring out the leader in you.
How about we now meet your needs? And I don’t mean just a quick fix, either. We don’t get physically fit reading about diet and exercise. We get fit living differently, every day. A new lifestyle is what gets sustainable, long-term results. We can also build fitness to lead in the same way – by discovering and taking on the daily rituals of highly effective leaders. Train tough and then lead easy, that’s what the say.
Let’s start a dialog about taking on a leader’s lifestyle to eliminate the ‘weight’ of interpersonal drama, and build the organizational muscle of increased results. Let’s shift the focus to ourselves. Going forward, let’s consider a leader’s lifestyle.
If your profession is that of a leader, you are responsible for the output of others. If you are like most, you take the responsibility very seriously and you’ve done your homework; you’ve studied powerful leadership models, you’ve researched what your people need in a no-normal world, you have identified targets of opportunity. Yet, nothing has changed. The same frustrations that presented themselves a year ago (or, more) continue to manifest.
It’s time to shift your focus to you.
It is time to take on a new lifestyle – a leader’s lifestyle. Over the next several blog posts, I will be looking into the daily rituals of highly engaging, and highly productive leaders (as seen by their people, their peers and their managers), with the hope that you can then put elements of this ‘leader’s workout’ into your daily plan. I’m going to organize my efforts into three critical success factors:
- Personal well-being from movement, fuel and recovery
- Interactional excellence through attention, commitment and trust
- Professional transformation via purpose, growth and service
Let’s get a workout. Let’s get fit – fit to lead.
By following a powerful regimen of personal preparation, behavioral modification and habit affirmation, we can normalize effective new behaviors for a happier, more powerful individual – at work and at play.
Just like in turbulent skies aboard an aircraft, secure your own oxygen mask first. When you are ready, then can you go about the business of bringing out the best in others.
