Developing Inspired Leaders
Author: Nicky J. Davies |
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Categories: Business Fast Track
When my team and I are delivering qualifications around leadership and management, we often start with a short summary of how leadership theories have changed over the years.
Where these theories start is with the question, are leaders born or made? At first it was believed that only certain people had leadership capabilities and that the rest of the population was born to follow. Next came the idea that there were certain behaviours that leaders have, like certain ways of communicating, influencing, and that these could be learned. Then we moved into theories that looked at leadership as the ability to be flexible, responding to the specific situation or a particular set of conditions. And more recently there has been an emphasis on more transformational leadership styles, of winning over people’s hearts and minds, using emotional intelligence and not just pure logical persuasion.
Funnily enough, my exploration of leadership over the years has brought me right back to this first question of whether leaders are born or made. And here’s how I would answer it now.
You, yes you, have an innate capacity for leadership. Everyone does. In that sense you are born a leader.
Now does that mean you are going to lead in every aspect of your life? No. It depends what you are interested in. Your values, the things that are truly important to you, the things you always make time for, that energise you, are where you are going to show up as that great inspired leader you truly are.
For me my three highest values are around personal development, business and teaching / coaching. I have such an interest in these three things that I have spent most of my adult life learning about them and so I probably have done more than the 10,000 hours of studying on each that apparently leads to mastery, so its no big surprise that these are areas I naturally lead in.
What would it be for you?
But there is more to it than just mastery. You see, we all have this great intuition, that quiet voice, that is a guide of such wisdom. The truly great leaders are those who listen to and are guided by their intuition. They go inward, rather than outward. They may ask for advice, information, opinions from others, but ultimately they go inward to make sense of it all and make a decision from this place.
From this place, they have certainty and presence.
This often gives people around them a sense of confidence, of hope, a sense that everything will work out, especially around times of chaos and turmoil.
It’s not that they have all the answers. It’s that they have the certainty that they can figure it out.
Now I’m saying ‘they’, but this also applies to you.
Think back to a time when you just knew what you needed to do, went ahead and did it despite what was going on around you, and you did this with such conviction, such certainty and presence, that it did work out really well.
This is you showing up as that inspired leader you truly are. Your natural, innate leadership capability.
So why don’t you feel like an inspired leader most of the time?
Well, there’s a lot of stuff that can get in the way….
Few people get into inspired action and become highly productive serving themselves and the world. Most people just get by. They live with their comfort zone and attempt to just fulfil their immediate needs and wants. They experience frustration, and function from a level of quiet desperation.
Most people oscillate between injecting the values of perceived authorities into their lives with should, ought tos, need tos, and then projecting their values onto those they see as subordinates, or lower than them, and telling them what they should , ought to, need to do.
You don’t want to escape life; you want to engage with life.
Most people shy away from leadership because they fear discomfort and responsibility. But shying away robs you of the key to success and personal growth.
“When you have a choice to make and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice” William James, known as the father of American psychology.
Aimlessness is not living.
You can’t make a difference fitting in. You will only make a difference standing out.
Creating a future that is bigger than your past is essentially an act of imagination. But you have to be willing to let your imagination go there. You have to want a bigger future. And know it takes a great deal of courage. The courage to think big or as Brene Brown says, Dare to be Bold.
The decision to grow is a decision to take charge of your own future, and it always ends up having an impact that goes far beyond just you. Its as if the world responds to you. Opportunity naturally comes to you, ideas, resources flow to you and the right people with the right skills, visions and connections tend to show up to help you.
Growth always has a ripple effect. It creates inspiration and learning opportunities for others. It positively impacts on others and often you won’t even be aware of it. Our growth is rewarded with encouragement, resources, opportunities that in turn help us continue to pursue more growth.
Most of us struggle with issues related to growth at various points in our lives because, as much as we desire it, growth is not easy. Rosabeth Moss Kanter once said that ‘everything looks like a failure in the middle’. It’s true! Sometimes growing pains can feel like failure, and sometimes failure is part of growth.
Most growth happens as a result of many small steps. The key is to keep taking them and before you know it you’ve climbed that giant staircase to achieve your goal or objective.
And if you would like to know more about how can support you, book a call with Nicky: https://meetme.so/NickyDavies