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You Can’t Give Away What You Don’t Have
If you want to sell orange juice you need oranges
If you have a genuine desire to lead, motivate and inspire people, you must have the same ability to impact yourself in the same way.
You cannot build momentum through motivation if you are not motivated, to inspire those in your team requires you to be inspirational, leading others can only be done if you can lead yourself.
There are 3 very simple factors that allow you to lead your team to high performance.
1. Safety: This is a primal desire that every human has had since we were living in caves. If you were around people, you trusted and bought security we knew we would get to eat. If you were isolated or with people you didn’t trust, you were at an increased chance of being eaten. As a leader, your ability to bring the feeling of safety to those in your team/s regardless of circumstances is the base of high performance. This is delivered by caring and honesty - Knowing someone has your back and will provide clarity around performance removes distractions and creates a pathway forward.
2. Authenticity: IQ, knowledge and experience are all very valuable tools that can provide access to great outcomes however they don’t necessarily make you a great leader. Bringing these qualities from your “true-self” is the only way you can lead over a sustained period. The best intention can be completely dissolved if you are delivering information from an inauthentic place. As those who are in your leadership are not hearing your message, they just feel something is not right. This is the biggest and most consistent source of failure in leadership.
How to address this? Know yourself, and take time every day to learn about your drivers, strengths, weaknesses, and purpose. This is a key factor in sparking personal ambition which allows you to inspire those you lead. Leaders put so much attention on their people, responsibilities, outcomes, and goals which is vital. However, when asked how much time they have put into learning about themselves the answer is often “None”. How can you be authentic if you don’t know yourself? Just like the people you lead, you are evolving all the time; so, this is not a one-off process, this is something that requires you to check in consistently.
What to do then?
Do the same with yourself as you do when you see people you care about. How are you going? (Ask this genuinely to yourself) Why? (Do you feel that way) Decide what to keep doing, start doing and stop doing. Taking just 5-minutes a day to create this self-awareness allows you to build authenticity and lead from a place that others believe in.
3. Control the Controllable: As a high-performance leader who is pushing boundaries to grow performance it is inevitable that you are going to move into domains that you “Cannot Control”. This is key to personal growth and expanding your abilities, but you need to know that those you are leading are influenced by what you can control. The more time you put into what you can’t control the impact on your team deteriorates. If unaddressed this will lead to a slow decline with bad outcomes. This happens with even the best of intentions. Leading by what you “Can Influence”; team members, boards, and stakeholders is an essential part of leadership. However, leading through influence alone makes people wait for your direction before acting. This leads to a gradual decline in performance towards a negative threshold. Focusing predominantly on what you “Can Control”; your energy, mindset, response to situations, personal preparation, communication and what you do know; provides the opportunity to elevate your personal performance and builds your influence as a leader.
Leaders that have the most impact are in control, they make those around them feel safe and they are authentic. These qualities are simple to access and understand however being this way every day is highly challenging but what in your life of significance is easy?
Learn the practical skills needed to lead your team to a happier, healthier and more productive space - find out how: https://www.thechangeroom.info/inspired-teams