Becoming a great leader requires conscious practice and dedication. Everyone has the power within them to develop incredible leadership skills, but it takes guts and courage to do the work. The good news is that starting today you can take giant steps towards evolving as a leader. It doesn’t matter if you are a business owner or currently working in a leadership position or even someone looking to step up into a leadership role there are key skills you will need if you want to be a great leader.
Leadership is about us, it’s about us showing up authentically as ourselves and for this reason there is no one size fits all approach in leadership because everyone has a unique leadership style. I like to describe leadership as a state of being not a role that you play. If you are one way at work and then come home and behave in a totally different way – that is not leadership. If you really want to tap into your leadership greatness you must lead from a place of authenticity which is not something you can switch on or off, rather it’s who you are. I learnt how to step into my authentic leadership by getting mentors around me and observing them.
I learnt how to step into my authentic leadership by getting mentors around me and observing them.
Learning how to lead from my authentic self was a skill I had to learn and it did take a lot of practice and time.
I looked for traits and attributes they possessed that I could embody myself, I looked for their values and selected ones that resonated with me and then I started to evolve my style and become more and more authentically me. I decided not to copy one person, but rather select qualities I admired in other leaders and wove them into my own character. I also did this through learning through hundreds of audiobooks on leadership, communication, peak performance and conflict resolution and by doing this it helped me to understand myself more, which consequently allowed me to understand others more.
A process that I run with my Inner Circle members is called ‘The Definition of Leadership’ which is when you define the person it is you wish to be. You may not be this person yet, but ask yourself – “who do I aspire to be?” Think about the people around you, it could be a father figure or a friend or someone in the public eye who possesses qualities and values that you really resonate with. Write down some of those traits and come up with your own definition of leadership. Mine is humble, authentic and vulnerable. That’s how I want to show up as a leader.
In the past my ego was steering the ship and I certainly did not show up as humble, authentic and vulnerable but now over time I’ve moved through that and I really am focused on showing up as that. If you define who you are as a leader and let your team know or your manager know, then they know who they are following.
If they don’t know who they are following as a leader, they have to guess.
If you are already in a position of leadership or wanting to step into one, I also suggest getting your team or colleagues to do the same process. Everyone can be a self-leader and it doesn’t matter where you’re at in the organization now, if you want to evolve and grow then this is the first place to start. It also helps to see who your team is aspiring to be because you can now help them through that process too.
If you would like to find out more about leadership and how you can become a better leader, feel free to reach out here and let’s see what we can do for you.
