4 Ways to Lead Yourself into a New Year
Novices think leadership begins with others.
Leadership is about others but it begins with you.
Ask novice-leaders what needs to be done and their sentences begin with “they”.
Novice-leaders complain about others rather than owning their responsibility.
Complaints are self-indictments.
Self-leadership:
The danger of authority is the tendency to expect more from others than you expect from yourself.
- Become a skillful leader if you hope to lead remarkable teams. You are responsible for the lousy meetings you run, for example.
- Become an exceptional spouse if you hope to experience a spectacular marriage.
- Become a magnificent mom or dad if you hope to enjoy family life.
Lack of guaranteed outcomes is no excuse for not bringing your best.
Definition:
Self-leadership is expecting more from yourself than you expect from others.
Focus on what you should do, more than what others should do.
- Exemplify the attitudes and values you expect from others.
- Take 100% responsibility for yourself and your team.
Self-leadership is clear to leaders who take responsibility and confusing to blamers. If things aren’t going as you hoped, look at yourself. The answer begins with you, not others.
Humility rules when leaders practice self-leadership.
4 ways to lead yourself into a new year:
#1. Do you want to hold others accountable? Become the most accountable person on your team.
#2. Do you want to tell others what to do? Invite someone to tell you what to do. (Not a delinquent employee, of course.)
#3. Do you want to evaluate others? Yield yourself to rigorous evaluation. I didn’t say, “Evaluate yourself.”
#4. Do you need to be hard on others? Ask others to be hard on you.
Toward self-leadership:
Stop worrying about who you aren’t, what you don’t have, and things you can’t do. Focus on who you are, what you have, and things you can do.
What is self-leadership?
How might leaders step toward self-leadership?
“Stop worrying about who you aren’t, what you don’t have, and things you can’t do. Focus on who you are, what you have, and things you can do.” powerful message!
Leaders sometimes do exactly as you have shown above, stay out of the “negative syndrome” and enhance the positive side, set realistic goals and keep them simple, as you progress you can “add complexitiy” if needed, often times we tend to overfill the complex, when it was simple all along. “Don’t expect others to do something you can do yourself, although if your position is to delegate walk with them on their journey and share the experience.
Thanks Tim. Great insights. As I read your comment, that last sentence really hit me. …”if your position is to delegate, walk with them on their journey…” So powerful. Delegation isn’t abdication or isolation.
Happy New Year Dan and all LF community!
Thanks for the dose of tough love to help us treat this new baby year the right way. I especially like the firm examples from all areas of life and how we might lead ourselves right into what we want. It’s extrapolate-able !
Cheers, Cate
Thanks Cate. Rest assured that the kick started with me this morning. I’m just passing it along. 🙂
Love the word extrapolate-able.
Happy New Year
Love this.
So many times have I seen leaders who blame shift. That does nothing for the team except cause motivation to go down the drain.
It takes a true leader, a humble leader to stand up and say “It’s my fault” and also to ask others in the team for advice.
Great post Dan.
Brilliant recommendations! Happy New Year!
This was great! Definitely a lot to apply this year!
Dear Dan,
Happy New Year to all LF Readers! May God bless us with happiness, good health, success and prosperity in 2018!
Let our journey of good learning continue with your excellent posts round the year.
Liked the post and your verdict “Humility rules when leaders practice self-leadership”. It is the essence of success on a sustainable basis with best of good relations with all stakeholders.