Much of my leadership writing and guidance centers on the importance of awareness and choice. To become the leaders we have the potential to be, we need to be aware of the leadership opportunities we face, and we must choose to act on them. Easy, right? Obviously not, or we wouldn’t be investing so much time and money on books, seminars, coaching, consulting. . . .
The hard truth is that we will spend a lifetime understanding, acquiring, and developing the skills needed to be effective leaders. Even with constant awareness and rigorous choice, we will always be works in progress, with an endless stream of opportunities to improve and grow.
How can we get the most out of our efforts to progress as leaders? It starts with four questions that form the foundation for leadership development.
- Who am I?
- What do I want?
- What attracts others to choose to follow me?
- How can I earn and retain the privilege to lead?
While these are simple questions, our ability to answer them completely and honestly is extremely difficult. Our willingness and ability to continuously ask and answer these questions is key to our long-term success and growth.
In earlier posts, I defined a set of essential leadership attributes that form “The If 16 Leadership Framework.” Understanding and mastering these attributes helps us understand and answer these four important questions.
Who am I? Self-awareness is at the heart of all growth and development. Knowing who we are means knowing what we value. It means digging and exploring our beliefs. It also means looking at our choices and actions. Are we living in a way that reflects our declared values and beliefs? The leadership attributes most aligned with self-awareness are CHARACTER, AUTHENTICITY, INTEGRITY, and SELF-EFFICACY.
What do I want? Once we start understanding who we are, we can begin to see what we want – what we want to achieve, what we want to learn, what our life’s mission is. . .. The attributes that help us understand and answer this question are AMBITION, VISION, BOLDNESS, and RESILIENCE.
How can I attract other to choose to follow me? Most of us are told who we work for. Our position in our organization defines that. The best leaders are those whom others choose to follow regardless of their position. Our self-knowledge and knowledge of what we want to achieve can help us attract others. What truly draws others to us is our INSPIRATION, COURAGE, SELFLESSNESS, and STAMINA. Our ability to demonstrate these attributes will make us the type of leader others want to follow.
How do we earn and retain the privilege to lead? Those we lead will judge us by how we respond to the opportunities and challenges we confront. When we respond well, it makes others want to continue to follow us. The attributes most associated with this question are ENTHUSIASM, COMPOSURE, PATIENCE, and ACCOUNTABILITY. Just as the consistency of our behavior will attract others, our consistency will also help us retain their trust and keep them following us.
Effective leadership depends on our willingness and ability to constantly ask ourselves these questions and to answer them objectively and honestly. This is an endless cycle. In the coming weeks, I will focus my posts on exploring each question and the attributes that supports it.
