The Leaders Greatest Power

SUMMARY

As a leader, we have different understandings of what power might be. For some people, a leader has power over others. For others, a leader has the power to be able to get things done. My understanding of the greatest power you can have is a power that comes from within.

It's the power that fuels, sustains and lifts you up when you need to be motivated and inspired. It's great to have all those external things, just like it's great to have people who like and accept you. However, the greatest power comes when you give that to yourself.

This week, I want to start working with you on the foundational competency that underpins all the others, and that is Personal Power.

TRANSCRIPT

Do you often doubt yourself? Are you proud of yourself and confident in your abilities, or do you beat yourself up and have an unhealthy internal dialogue?

Well, stick with me because this week I want to get into the competency of Emotional Intelligence that was able to take me out of the depths of despair into a place of flourishing and flow.

Hi, this is Grant Herbert, VUCA Leadership and Sustainable Performance Coach, and today I want to continue our conversation as we step through this first quadrant of Emotional Intelligence which is self-awareness, by helping you to discover the leader's greatest power.

Over the last couple of weeks, we've been laying the foundation around Emotional Intelligence. We will first look in the quadrant of Self-Awareness before we will move into the quadrant of Self-Management. We looked at Emotional Self-Awareness which is the ability to be able to notice, name, and then navigate the emotions that we experience in a healthier way.

Last week, we looked at accurate self-assessment and asking for feedback so that you will get a true understanding of your current reality before you start working on the competencies.

Today, I want to start working with you on the foundational competency that underpins all the others, and that is Personal Power.

As a leader, we have different understandings of what power might be. For some people, a leader has power over others. For others, a leader has the power to be able to get things done. My understanding of the greatest power you can have is a power that comes from within.

It's the power that fuels, sustains and lifts you up when you need to be motivated and inspired. It's great to have all those external things, just like it's great to have people who like and accept you. However, the greatest power comes when you give that to yourself.

Personal Power is the ability to know that you have everything within you and around you to get ahead in life. It's about your self-worth and self-confidence. It's the foundation of your identity of who you believe you are and working on developing who you believe you're not.

For me, Personal Power is a competency that every one of us continually works on. There is no substitute for having a power that's within you instead of looking externally at things or titles or anything else that you're going after.

I'd never heard of this thing called Personal Power. I did find out though, when I realised what it was, that I didn't have much of it. And it was because the areas that I had to work on in personal power were lacking that I had all the challenges with myself and others that I was going through in my career.

Personal Power is the antidote to self-doubt, the performance trap, people-pleasing, and imposter syndrome.

But how do you get this thing called Personal Power?

You first need to recognise that it is a crucial element in your personal development and not something that you need to outsource to anybody else. This is something that you need to get for yourself.

Over the years, people have called me a motivational speaker where I'll get up on stage, pump you up and get you feeling good. The challenge with that my friend is that although that's true, when I leave and you are there by yourself, the motivation is fleeting and it fades away.

Personal Power will give you the ability to be okay with yourself — to build, motivate and inspire yourself, particularly when things are not going well around you. It is the foundation that helps you to manage the response to your emotions in many situations, lowers your stress levels, helps you become more resilient, communicate well with others, and handle conflict in a very healthy way.

Over the next few weeks, I want to go into this competency. I want to help you go through some exercises that will help you build this up for yourself.

The first thing you need to do is have a conversation with yourself about the things you’ve done in your life and look at when you were really proud of yourself. Whether that be before you had that situation or situations come about that allowed you to put meanings on things that then shaped your identity and conditioned your brain. Then, recognise those achievements and give yourself permission to relive those thoughts and experiences so that you have some evidence that you can rather than you can't.

It's all about being able to be confident in your own ability and be assertive in the way that you deal with others, particularly around setting healthy boundaries around the way that you'll speak to yourself and allow others to speak to you and treat you as well.

One of the greatest gifts Personal Power gives you is the ability to be able to say “yes" and “no” appropriately within the boundaries of your true priorities. Staying authentic and real and being who it is that you are destined to be, not worrying about what others think of you and what they expect you to be.

Personal Power is a great gift that you can give yourself. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to help you to do just that.

Well, that's it from me for another week. Join me again next week as we get into Personal Power and start chipping away at that old conditioning, and start rebuilding your inner worth and your sense of self-confidence, so that you can go forward to being who you need to be in every area of your life.

I'll see you then.