Leadership is about turning values and vision into tangible steps forward.
Leaders first lead themselves. Your leadership flows out of how you recognize and appreciate your own core values, how you relate to your own truest self. The depth of your understanding of yourself is a key indicator of the strength of your leadership. As you embrace your core values and your authentic self, you begin to become the leader you are capable of becoming.
You translate your values into a vision for your leadership, and your vision transforms the ways you approach leading.
Leaders also lead other people. The time and effort you have spent discerning your own values and vision, and finding ways to put them into practice, allows you to help those around you do the same thing. You are able to listen more attentively, and to get out of your own way. Your authenticity and depth of appreciation are examples for others to follow.
With experience, you become better able to help others recognize who they really are and to become the leaders they want to become. You see how their core values fit with your own, and how each member of a team or department contributes to the overall vision. Each person contributes to telling the story, and your leadership ensures that the next part of the story is told well.
Leaders also lead organizations. They integrate the ways many people work together to reflect common values, move toward a common vision, and take measurable steps forward. It is easy for leaders to lose their balance, focusing on values to the exclusion of forward movement, or on the details and losing sight of core values. The key is incorporating both.
Leading from your true self helps you find and maintain the balance.
How are you leading yourself?
How is your leadership helping others become the leaders they are capable of becoming?
[Image by qthomasbower]
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