Dedicating some time and space for your thoughts and beliefs about Leadership and how your Character plays a role in yours. Exploring the depths of this theme will potentially happen bit by bit (bite by bite), so our first take here is merely a start.
Feeling called to address with a notion also the current happenings on the planet and our human need for tools to gain more certainty and strength to get safe through this too.
Benefits of exploring the seemingly obvious
Just like the title, these questions shall be your guides for fine-tuning and optimising your connection with your Authenticity in any current role you exercise as a Leader –
as a Friend, a Companion, a Dad, a Mom, a Brother, a Sister, a Son, a Daughter, Uncle or Aunt, a role model to a peer or team member, a host, a speaker to large groups, or many of these at once, and more:
Do you find that inspiring others fuels your feeling of Happiness and personal Success?
Do you feel aligned with your Leadership practices today?
Do you feel like a fundamentally great and inspiring Leader? If not yet feeling that way, do you know the reasons for that?
If in any of your Life-roles you still somehow don't completely feel enough or do not feel fulfilled just yet, it will be revealing – and rewarding – to get to the core of that feeling, that belief. Once you've identified what is blocking your access to that feeling of accomplishment you seek, you will be in a good position to find the best way to root out blocks or reframe them.
Meanwhile you can magnify the impact of this thought process by clarifying your thoughts and beliefs around your Why(s).
When you feel that a thought is obvious, it could be a sign that it has become a belief. Beliefs are curious things, they have the ability to distort our perception of the world and we adjust things so that our belief (an idea or thought we repeated many times) remains true. If that belief for example is not an empowering one, it can really hold us back.
So, the benefit of being ready to explore the nature of a seemingly obvious thought is, that you can make sure it is something that is in alignment with you.
Allowing space for empowering ideas to enter our Mind, helps our Personal Evolution thrive.
Even if the question seems at first simple, try and embrace it and truthfully answer it – it may lead you to some very deep motivations that may have sunken into oblivion along the way and it may also reveal some exceptional Character traits you could choose to consciously appreciate:
Do you know, do you remember why you want to be a great, possibly very inspiring Leader?
I can tell you why I always wanted to be one: I was always fascinated by how impactful noble, compassionate, wise Leadership was and could not relate to those who abused their position of any kind of power. Historical figures, heroes in stories and films and of course Role Models in my immediate surrounding, they all taught me things that I embraced as part of a great and inspiring Leadership, and I also learned which human behaviors I would always expose and challenge – possibly with benevolence and wisdom.
I also realised that leading can be happening with fanfares and with a global impact (all those inspiring, goosebump-speeches before a battle, an election, a revolution), but also humbly in the everydays with a significant positive impact on our Life and the Life of those around us.
To create potentially another idea sparked from an info nugget: one (Oxford Dictionary) definition says, “Inspiration is the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative”.
Leaders also have leaders. It may be a thought, an inspirational quote for as long as that single influential thought lasts or someone's ideas, actions and work that influence us for a lifetime.
Who and what are your sources of Inspiration?
What do you appreciate in a Leader, what makes them remarkable in your eyes?
Do you find those quiet moments to observe the impact of an encouraging word or action?
What really is Leadership?
When you are looking for a definition of Leadership, you will find many aspects and very different opinions about it. And a great many attempts to describe it well.
Interpretations you potentially resonate with, may be:
Leadership is to influence others to do things, even beyond expectations, willingly.
Leadership is believing in others even before they do and help them realise their own value and strengths.
Especially outstanding Leaders are able to keep actions, thoughts and feelings in the continuum of the Greater Good, in an always ethical, global, universal, timeless context.
The essence of things around Leadership, primary meanings may not change, but there may be new aspects to them. You can find many messages from the leaders in history that could still be found valid – conveyed by new faces in a language and formulation that speaks to us more today.
Being able to convey messages and ideas in a way that is relatable, is something that is very essential in the skillset of an exceptional Leader: to be able to connect with their audience on a meaningful level and maximize the impact they are making.
Just like all other beliefs in our Life, this also is a very personal choice:
what you believe about leading in any role and what greater meaning that has for you.
Courage, or leading in and through challenging times
The motive of Core Values, as you could see, permeates my Life and content I share with you. I already thought of choosing these one by one and talking about them with you and how they play a significant role in our Life and Leadership.
These days when scanning headlines to inform myself about potential Home travel and in the hope of good progress, I feel somewhat more vulnerable than usual.
Daily habits (the most powerful for me are my regular Gratefulness exercise, observe and reframe any negativity, and my morning Meditation) I implemented this past year helped me establish a great balance in my emotional states and strengthen my resilience. Still, these days it is a bit more effort to remain centered and minimize worries about Family, Friends and any fellow human basically.
Do you have tools, practices, habits that keep you centered?
Whenever times are thoroughly testing us and putting to the test everyone's ability to lead with the most compassion and wisdom possible, this Value may be one that increases our feeling of being empowered. A Value that keeps us driven – sharing that natural drive to be strong for not only ourself, but others: Courage.
Courage in the face of adversity.
Courage to feel vulnerable and to effectively recover from fear and worry.
Courage to offer comfort even if we are usually somewhat reserved.
Courage to detach for a little while, to be able to uncloud our vision and make smart decisions accepting the big emotional impact of the situation, while considering wise and intelligent steps for the long-term.
Courage to admit a moment of fear and keep space to revise any decisions when we realise they were made on a fragile emotional basis.
Bring out the most graceful in us
When we understand a piece of history, when we see it embodied in someone in a situation, when we watch that elevated moment in a film (back to those goosebump-speeches) or experience the care of an empathetic leader in times like this, we tend to get into a more elevated state and we are able to feel the nobel Spirit and Grace revealing the best in us humans.
Faith in that noble Spirit, in ourselves, in that friendly Universe, that bad things shall pass and that we as a species are capable of really wonderful things, continuously evolving and collaborating, help unfold our greatest potential.
True Leadership can bring out the most graceful in us.
These, like any somewhat challenging times are asking us to do that, so that we can emerge from the experience knowing that we did our best.
Lead with an air of confidence that is rooted in your genuine care and intelligence.
Lead with compassion and inspire action that positively adds to collaboration on any level: in Family, at work, in your local community and globally.
Let's join forces.
Be the Leader you always wanted to be. Be the Leader also you could appreciate and bravely follow into the Unknown.
In the illustrations I took film characters as Leadership representatives as they may tone down potentially controversial aspects we may have around real-life leaders now, and in the hope that it enriches our visualisation around our theme.
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and how you experienced the content.
It is absolutely priceless to me when you receive what I give as Value.
You also added new colours as you describe your take on it.
You inspire me and I'm happy to continue the Adventure with you on board!
In our next conversations here we may as well deep-dive into the tricky nature of "simple admiration" and elaborate on how we can admire a Leader while remaining self-empowered. I'm very grateful you brought it up in a way that I understand it to be a significant element in our next chapter. Just like the responsibility and deep care we need to exercise in Leadership to…
I really enjoyed reading your article. I found the way you have your reader cross check with themselves about their beliefs and how they felt about leadership, both interesting and challenging. Interesting as I find looking into ourselves can allow us to discover maybe what other people see. Challenging as we often take our own attributes and assume we are in control of them.
I also believe you are encouraging us to always be on he "right side" of leadership and even if we can manipulate those we may lead, it is always better to be open and transparent in a way that the people we influence follow with an open heart through understanding rather than through fear or simple…