My new book The Fearless Factor @ Work is based on my experience working with hundreds of clients who have made a commitment to change their professional and personal lives.
It is the result of over 30 years of education in behavioral and organizational challenges, hundreds of books, countless seminars, conferences, certifications, and facilitating my own leadership training programs. This journey has led me to a profound understanding of what it takes to be a great leader.
We are all leaders of our own lives, and if you aspire to be a leader of others, you must first do your own work. Self-awareness is the first step in any change process.
Change is Hard
Great leaders are not born, they are forged in the steel of experiences, both good and bad. Ultimately, good leaders become conscious of the impact they are having on the world around them, and choose to make change a positive experience for everyone. But it comes with a cost.
Let’s not have any illusions. Change is hard. Facing our limitations, our feeling of inadequacy, and our belief that we may not be good enough, challenges a state of mind that impacts many of us.
In order to change, you must let go of limited thinking, and confront the behaviors that do not serve your best interests. Letting go of what doesn’t serve you is the journey of discovery. Whether you know it or not, limited thinking has impacted the quality of your life. A simple test is to ask yourself, “Is my life working for me the way I want it to?”
In order to change you must believe there is something better, and to do that you need a vision of where you think you want to go.
VITAL Elements
Having a vision of where you’re going is the first step in my VITAL leadership program. VITAL is the acronym for Vision, Insights, Trust, Appreciation and Legacy.
Cultivating each of these elements creates strong leaders that make a difference in any organization.
When you have a Vision of where you’re going, what you want, and can imagine your future, it will give you a path to success. Insights offer you a path to understand your strengths and weaknesses which you need to achieve your vision. Over time your vision and insights will not only provide a greater understanding of who you are, but what is possible, and how you can achieve it.
When you have gained this awareness, you will learn to Trust yourself, move beyond the fears that are getting in the way of your success, and build trust with others. You will learn to Appreciate how important it is to have this self-awareness, and to appreciate the contributions of others by showing them you care. When you put all this together, you will influence people positively and leave a lasting impression that becomes your Legacy.
Maya Angelou said, “it doesn’t matter what you do, or what you say, it’s the way you make people feel that matters”.
Strong leadership demands you do the internal work before you can have the influence you want to have in the external world. If you are ready to lead and are willing to stay curious and do the hard work of change your leadership will have a long-lasting impact and will change the way you do business and life.