Keys To Successful Leadership
October 2017 Insights
We all lead, either by choice or default. Leadership is the ability to inspire and motivate yourself and others into taking positive and sustainable action. Whether you are a high level executive at a Fortune 500 company trying to negotiate a corporate buy out, on the board of your school district’s PTA organizing and recruiting for a fundraiser, an owner of a local bakery who would like to encourage her customers to use her services more often, or a coach just like me working with all of them, it’s crucial to understand that each person is a leader, or at least a leader in the making. If you don’t think of yourself as a leader, you are limiting your potential. Leading is the way we help people move into action, ourselves moreover. The question is not whether or not we are leaders, but how well we lead.
The importance of our leadership abilities cannot be underestimated. As women even on the most ordinary of levels our leadership ability can determine whether or not our children do their homework, and how well they do it; how well we negotiate the purchase of a new car or home; how we communicate with anyone we do business with; how we develop mutually supportive and sustaining relationships, and most importantly, how much energy we can muster to motivate ourselves to take action to live our most powerful, productive, and purposeful lives.
Unfortunately, there is no formula available that can teach the ideal leadership style, since what works for some people doesn’t always work for others and what works at times doesn’t work all the time. However, with all that being said through my training as an empowerment coach I have come to distinguish eight key components that I believe if focused upon can best enrich the development of effective leadership skills.
8 Key Components To Successful Leadership
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Energy Leadership Development System
Dynamic Communication-Conversations take place at all levels of energy. Each paragraph, each sentence, and each word depending on how it is said, as well as everything that is not said out loud, will impact a leader’s ability to engage his or her audience, shift their energy, and inspire the individuals to complete a task, mission, or journey.
Conflict/Challenge Resolution-Life is cyclical. At times you are accomplishing something substantial, feeling confident, and on top of the world. At other times your life can be filled with events, situations, and people, or a combination of all of them that complicate matters. Just because life is filled with challenges, depending upon your frame of reference, your response to this apparent chaos will be significant in how you lead.
Emotional Intelligence-Emotional intelligence can be defined as our ability to distinguish, understand, and have a greater awareness of how our inner game of thoughts and feelings connect with our outward display of behaviors and actions, as well as the ability to manage these thoughts and feelings to effectively lead.
Productivity-Getting things done, achieving results requires effective use of resources available to you. It also involves the leadership and stewardship of resources such as people, capital, and time. Getting things done requires an ability to organize yourself, to focus on your priorities, and to carry out your work and mission.
Influencing And Inspiring Others-Successful leaders focus less (if at all) on what to say in order to get people to take action. Instead, effective leaders focus on how they can “be” in order to embody a message that inspires others to accomplish a task, create a powerful relationship, and/or join forces to complete a mission.
Developing/Maintaining Positive & Effective Relationships-Our lives are a web of connecting relationships. Relationships bring us much joy, and sometimes a great deal of pain and sorrow. The ability to build a supportive team or tribe as well as minimize and manage draining relationships allows us to lead ourselves more effectively and then, in turn, others.
Time Management/Balance-We are all created equal in that all of us have 24 hours in our days. Where we differ is how we view and use that time. How we see time and how we invest our time directly impacts the success we’ll have in all aspects of life.
Health/Wellness-Our health obviously affects our physical energy in life. When our bodies are functioning optimally, we have the physical energy to work, play, study, and think. In other words, we have the energy to do the things that bring us success, in however we measure it. When we take care of our health, we secure the last link in the chain of success to lead most effectively.
Consider your level of effectiveness in each of these 8 components. Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being poor and 10 being excellent) on your level of knowledge and skill in each. Where are your strengths? Where are your gaps? Which component(s) hold your growth back the most? Reach out and let me know…let’s connect for a complimentary strategic coaching session to maximize upon those strengths and bridge any gaps leading you to a life you love to live!
Wishing You Always The Best Of Success
-Holly-