Personal Leadership Sets The Foundation

SUMMARY

Every person on the planet is a leader, even if they're only leading themselves. For you to do this, you need some skills.

This week, I will unpack three key shifts that I like to help people (starting with myself) make in the area of personal leadership. This will help you go from: “the hardest person to work with is yourself” to lead yourself and navigate through this thing called life in a way that is more enjoyable for you and/or those around you.

Here are three shifts that I would like to help you to make in three key areas.

1. Identity

2. Intelligence

3. Intention

Remember that leadership is not a gig that’s been put aside just for people running a team. You need to embrace that YOU are a leader.

TRANSCRIPT

Do you find the most challenging person to lead is yourself?

Well, stick with me because this week, we're going to talk about the type of leadership that will help you with that.

Hi, this is Grant Herbert, Emotional Intelligence Master Coach Trainer and Sustainable Performance Coach, and today I want to continue our conversation around the three facets of leadership by helping you to understand that it all starts with YOU.

For those of you who've been following me, you might notice that I missed a week last week, and that's because I finally succumbed to this thing called “CoViD, ” I was quite ill, and I'm just getting back to normal now. Instead of soldiering on and doing a video with CoViD, I did what I teach: I exercised some self-care, and I decided to let the conversation have a bit of a gap for a week, and I'm sure you're okay with that.

A couple of weeks ago, we started a conversation around leadership. I want to challenge you to have a look at what leadership is about and have a look around how understanding it can change how you become a great leader.

We looked at the three facets of leadership which are:

Personal leadership, professional leadership and people leadership.

So today, let's go a little deeper on the first one; let’s talk about Personal Leadership.

For many years, I thought leadership was something I needed to have some skills around so that I could tell other people what to do, lead them and, therefore, get results.

I know that that is part of what leadership is all about.

However, leadership has been relegated to just that, and I think it's a lot more than that. Leadership is a set of internal characteristics of YOU as the leader. When you look at it through the lens of personal leadership, what it does is it includes everybody in this leadership conversation.

If you think leadership is only for those who have a team or a responsibility to lead others, then you're missing out on what leadership is all about. As you embrace personal leadership, you will realise that you are a leader whether you are leading yourself, a couple of people or a large organisation.

Every person on the planet is a leader, even if they're only leading themselves. For you to do this, you need some skills. I want to quickly unpack three key shifts that I like to help people (starting with myself) make in the area of personal leadership. This will help you go from: “the hardest person to work with is yourself” to lead yourself and navigate through this thing called life in a way that is more enjoyable for you and/or those around you.

So, there are three shifts that I would like to help you to make in three key areas.

The first area is in your Identity.

Your identity is not what you do; your identity is who you believe you are. It’s the foundation for all other behaviour — it’s foundational for everything you do.

If you believe you are a certain person or not a certain person...

If you believe that there are things about you that hold you back from being a leader...

If you believe some things hold you back from being who you need to be, or you think you should be so that you thrive and survive in this world, then those beliefs will hold you back from the things you need to do.

So, working on the foundational area of your identity is the number one step in leadership. It's a shift from feeling like a fraud and an imposter to being congruent with who you are and with what it is that you believe in your behaviour as well.

The first area of personal leadership is to go inward and go:

“Who do I believe I am?”

“Who do I believe I'm not?”

“How are those beliefs affecting how I present myself to the world?”

“Do I have limiting or false beliefs about myself which are holding me back —limiting me from being my best version of myself?”

The second shift is in the area of Intelligence.

Intelligence is moving from singular, when you look at your cognitive intelligence or technical skills alone, to multiple experiences of your intelligence, particularly around the areas of Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence and Creative Intelligence.

So, it's about shifting from singular to becoming multi-dimensional. This area builds those competencies like Personal Power which also builds up your identity.

The third key area and shift that I help people make in this personal leadership area are in their Intention.

Intention is all about going from being scattered — having this seat-of-the-pants mentality and being in a rut — to being planned and intentional, ensuring that everything you do is on purpose. It’s not just about having a business plan, but it’s about having a plan for your life.

Therefore, instead of letting the winds of the world take you from wherever you are now to anywhere, you are intentional in who you are becoming — you know where you are going, what your purpose is, what your values are, and you are intentional on choosing the things that guide you.

Those are the three key areas that we look at in Personal Leadership.

So, who are you becoming as a leader?

Remember that leadership is not a gig that’s been put aside just for people running a team. You need to embrace that YOU are a leader.

Contemplate this:

What is it that you could work on?

Is it your identity?

Is it your intelligence?

Is it your intention?

Or is it all three?

Personal leadership is critical not just for your career or for a leadership role but for enjoying the growth and the contribution that you bring to the world. Personal leadership is something that every single one of us can engage, grow, and develop in.

I want you to take away and understand from this week’s episode that leadership is not about getting people to do what you want them to do; leadership all starts with you.

Well, that's it from me for another week. Join me again next week as we continue this leadership conversation where we look at the second area of leadership, which is your Professional Leadership. I'll see you then.