Feel like there’s got to be more to being a leader than running from meeting to meeting, repeatedly fixing the same problems, and beating your head against a wall trying to get people and things to change?
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
~ Gandhi
We’ve all been to a lot of classes – whether on leadership or related subjects – where we sit passively and listen to someone teach us things from a workbook or a power point presentation. Some of these classes may have infused us with new ideas and inspirations, others may not have. Either way, the chief challenge is coming back to our daily work and implementing what we have learned.
Class or no class, putting into practice the ideas and insights we get on a daily basis is a challenge. It is a challenge because it calls for us to integrate them into a way of doing things that we have established for ourselves over a long period of time.
In order to change, grow or improve in any way, we must consciously look at ourselves – at what is working and at what is not. Often we are so accustomed to running from project to project and meeting to meeting, that we aren’t even aware of the dynamics at play under the surface. This frenetic approach leads to a pattern of similar results, similar experiences, and inevitably similar frustrations, and often the feeling that there has to be more to it than this.
There is.
The truth is, you already possess within you the most significant core essentials you need in order to be successful.
The question is, are you using them? And are you using them to the best of your ability?
If the answer is no, it doesn't matter how many new tools you acquire or methodologies you learn. Our chief challenge is not to continue looking to others for solutions and answers, but instead to take the time to tap that part of ourselves that remains our purest potential.
The prerequisite for being an effective leader of others is to learn to lead ourselves.
In my next blog, The Spirit of a Leader we will continue to explore this concept and begin to differentiate that which is real from that which is illusion.
Unleash the Extraordinary!
Diane Bolden
© blog posts copyright 2007 Diane Bolden. All rights reserved.
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