As LionSpeak continues to grow, my team must grow also. Apparently, this presents an opportunity disguised as a challenge for me.
Every time we add a new person, I’m eventually, if not immediately, confronted with my own personal leadership abilities (or lack thereof.) I learn and relearn that everything they contribute which delights and pleases me is due to a multitude of factors: Their own skill level, growth, work ethic, and passion for this work and, to at least a small degree, my own leadership communication about LionSpeak’s vision and standards. But I’ve also learned that when they do not perform to my standards or vision, it is a direct and proportionate reflection and result of a gap in my leadership abilities and communication skills. Everything. Every time. 100%.
When I really analyze it, usually I determine that I’ve not been as clear as I could have been or thought I was. Sometimes, there is behavior that I’m ignoring, tolerating, actually participating in, or a result of something to which I’m blind myself. This constant “in-my-face” reminder felt heavy at first and many times since at various intervals along my entrepreneurial journey. But I now perceive it as a freeing notion because if it’s me then I have some control; there’s something I can work on; something I can do about it.
I see personal leadership as the ability to actualize our potential, manage our emotions, reframe our circumstances, and make decisions. It’s also our ability to communicate our ideas, instructions, desires, and needs in a clear, non-judgmental, and inspiring way to others… no matter the circumstances and with all types of people. Our ability in this regard is as important at our dinner table as it is at the boardroom table.
If strong leadership skills are missing or undeveloped, one thing I’ve learned is that we cannot coach ourselves. We can make small, incremental improvements but if we want to quickly and radically change our results and that of our team, we must seek coaching. We all have blind spots that other qualified professionals can spot and often coach us through. Investing in my own leadership growth and that of my people has been the lynchpin in our rapid development as a team and company.
One of my favorite LionSpeak programs to deliver is our Leaders of the Pride Workshop where we take owners, managers, team leaders, and even professionals who simply wish to be better individual leaders in their lives and put them through two days of a confronting, stretching, limiting-belief busting personal leadership training experience. People tell us it has not only been professionally profound but personally life-changing.
If you want a richer work experience, better business results, and a more capable and united team, consider investing in your leadership and/or theirs. We would welcome any of our LionSpeak community to join us in November in San Diego for our Leaders of the Pride Workshop. We promise to send you and/or your employees back into your workspace and lives with a fresh perspective about the privilege of work, the responsibility of personal leadership, and the joy of the journey to the best version of ourselves.
It’s a gift that keeps on giving in the best of ways.
“A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you
see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you always wanted to be.”
~~Tom Landry
