Lead Yourself First...

As the highest functioning member of the team, leaders are used to multi-tasking: strategizing and executing projects, guiding team members, and ensuring everyone has access to the resources they need to achieve success.?Then along came COVID. Overnight, leaders had to become agile, flexible, and creative in ways they could not have imagined before. It was nothing short of a baptism by fire. 97% of leaders reported that leading during COVID improved their leadership. 75% said adaptability and flexibility were crucial to their success while 69% cited strong communication as a critical skill during these difficult times.

But here’s another interesting stat that caught my attention. 50% of leaders said composure ensured that the adjustments to change were smooth. It is this aspect of leadership that I’d like to delve deeper into – how can a leader remain calm and centered when faced with massive, unprecedented challenges?

Businesses continue to face a historic amount of uncertainty and disruption in the post-COVID landscape. Anxiety and mental health issues are skyrocketing in the workplace. Nearly two-thirds of American adults said that their life has been forever changed by the pandemic in a recent poll by the American Psychological Association (APA). At the same time, employee expectations are shifting – they are increasingly embracing remote work and demanding more of it. According to a McKinsey survey, when people have the chance to work flexibly, 87% of them take it. To top it all, numerous macro factors like changing consumer expectations, rising inflation, and geopolitical tensions continue to rock the marketplace.

Leadership must effectively deal with these multi-pronged challenges without losing sight of the bottom line. A tall order, no doubt.

There are several things that leaders can do to empower themselves in the new reality. The most important is to heed the call for ‘human leadership’ – i.e., become more authentic, empathetic, and adaptive. Demonstrating these traits requires leaders to go beyond practicing conventional leadership skills like problem-solving or decision-making. They require leaders to journey inwards.

Leaders are not immune to mental health issues. According to a Deloitte survey, 76% of the c-suite state the pandemic has negatively affected their well-being, with a substantial number experiencing fatigue and mental health issues. When leaders are not afraid to openly share their emotions and fears, they create a safe space for team members to share their struggles as well. They strengthen trust and lay the foundation for stronger interpersonal relationships.

Vulnerability can take many forms: admitting your mistakes, showing up as yourself, revealing your feelings, or having the courage to try something new that you are not comfortable with. Regardless of the form chosen, it has powerful ripple effects on those around.

Science tells us that by the time we are 35 years old, 95% of who we are is just a memorized set of behaviors, emotional reactions, and unconscious habits that have been hardwired into us. So, if we want to change our outer world, we must begin by understanding and changing our inner selves first.

?When leaders go inside to understand their personality, emotions, and skills, they deepen their understanding of their strengths and weaknesses to become better problem solvers. The more leaders understand their authentic selves, the better they get at interpersonal relationships. This means they become better teammates and colleagues at work and better friends and partners outside of work.

In the aftermath of the pandemic, the World Economic Forum (WEF) recommends that leaders need to work with every ‘individual as a whole’ by designing policies, systems, and structures that acknowledge that work is not everything – it is just a part of a larger life experience. This applies to leadership teams as well. What do I mean by this?

Leaders often tend to put themselves last and take very little time for themselves. Now’s the time to change this and focus on their whole selves. By journeying inwards, not only can leaders maintain balance and create better outcomes for themselves, but they also invite others in the organization to practice self-exploration. In such a setting, team members become comfortable with the idea of bringing their authentic selves to work. They are not afraid to express new ideas or ask for help since they know they are not going to be judged. Imagine what this could do for team morale and how it can propel the organization forward!

?If the past few years have taught me anything, it’s that solutions to problems are not outside of us. Journeying inwards allows us to not only understand our authentic selves but also see issues from a different perspective to create innovative solutions. To quote Plutarch,

“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.”

As we embark on a new year, I wish you all much success in your inward and outward journey!?