Are you choosing to be a leader at this time? How are you leading yourself and others? Ask yourself what can you do right now that will have a positive impact on yourself and the people around you? The 'people around you' might be the team you lead in your work, it might be your family, it might be your community. They might not physically be 'around you' but you can still have a positive impact on their lives.
What is a leader?
Do you see yourself as a leader? Most people will only answer 'yes' to this to this question if it's something that's implied in their job title. However, I would argue that we are all leaders and have a responsibility to 'lead from where we are'. We lead teams in our workplace, we lead colleagues, we lead in our families, we lead in our friendships, we lead in our relationships, we lead in our communities, we lead ourselves…..every day when we wake, we have a whole day of opportunities to lead ahead of us.
And what is the measure of leader? How do you know you're doing a good job? Certainly, in a workplace context, the most obvious way is by measuring outputs, ticking off deliverables and achieving goals, but is that purely what leadership is all about? I would call that good management, rather than leadership, and this view was reinforced for me by Robin Rawson at Progress People a few weeks back as I sat in on his Legacy Leadership workshop. Leadership can be measured by considering the positive or negative impact your actions have on yourself or those you lead. That doesn't mean being 'nice' all the time, it means having the courage to be honest, give them they feedback they need to grow, being empathetic and genuinely wanting the best for them, even if that means having a tough conversation. Leadership is a choice and not always an easy one.
So I will repeat the questions I opened this piece with:
Are you choosing to be a leader at this time?
How are you leading yourself and others?
Ask yourself what can you do right now that will have a positive impact on yourself and the people around you?
Choose leadership.
My focus right now is to work with leaders to support them with how they are leading themselves and in turn, how they are leading their teams to achieve their goals, realise their potential and improve their wellbeing. I am doing this through one-on-one coaching and am accessible globally. If you need some help to be the best leader you can be, get in touch for a chat.
Tell me what you need and want to know to grow your leadership and realise your potential.
I don't assume to know all the challenges faced by leaders so would like to hear your thoughts so that I can give the best value with the content I share. Pop me an email on fionadeehan@caraconsulting.co.nz to share your insight and make sure you don't miss out on future practical tips and resources by subscribing to my newsletter.