Drooping shoulders and hanging hands point to dark water ahead.
There’s a word for low energy leaders and low aspiration teams. Dying!
21 ways to fuel vitality in challenging reality:
High vitality leadership concerns the WAY leaders get things done.
- Decide. Neutrality drains vitality.
- Rest. Take a five minute walk between meetings. No phone.
- Adapt. Leaders who won’t adapt, drain brains and defeat creativity.
- Kind candor. Avoidance drains. Say what you really think, not what you’re supposed to say.
- Next steps. What “might be” is more compelling than what “used to be”.
- Establish direction. It helps to know where you’re going when the path is steep. What words define your aspirational destination?
- Focus. Paralysis is moving in five directions at once.
- How might you narrow focus today?
- What one thing would you like to accomplish in the next hour?
- Connection and conversation. Talk about something other than work. Banter lightens the load.
- Solutions. Move from problem to possibility.
- Shared goals. Shared goals fuel passion. Everything else is bland conformity.
- Gratitude. High expectations, challenge, support, and GRATITUDE create environments of performance. Gratitude says hard work is worth it.
- Initiative. Procrastination and delay drain. Remember the last time you tackled a project you’d been putting off? Imagined monsters are worse than the real thing. You can deal with real monsters.
- Generosity. Help an old lady across the street. Don’t make a long-term commitment.
- Affirmation. Say, “When I see you at your best, I see you ….” Affirmation has high Return on Energy for both givers and receivers.
- Hold your head up. I mean this literally.
- Breathe. Take a few moments to calm your spirit and clear your mind before your next task or conversation.
- Authenticity.
- Reward.
- Respect.
- Learn.
- Journal.
Which of these vitality building activities could you practice today? How?
What vitality building activities might you add to the “complete” list?
