Stop waiting. You're already the leader you want to be.
Duncan Skelton
Make a list of the boldest futures you dare to dream. I coach Global Leaders | Rock Climber | Endurance Athlete | Ex-Google | Create a Life You Love ??
Hi there ????. Ready to lead? "Acts of Leadership" helps people, (irrespective of title or tenure), expand their leadership range one experiment at a time. Each issue shares a [pro/e]vocative definition of leadership, an idea and an experiment.
Inertia
I'm just back from a holiday trip I didn't want to go on.
It's the most important action I'll take this year.
A dear friend invited me back to the Alps for 10 days of adventure and kinship. It's been 20 years since we had regular summer trips mountaineering and climbing there. It feels like multiple lifetimes ago– much has changed for us both.
And now, 20 years older, it feels inconvenient right now.
?? Clients need to talk
?? Jobs to do at home
?? Marketing to be done
?? I need to focus on work
?? Don't want to be selfish
?? I'm certainly not fit enough
Maybe next year
The truth is I don't want to admit that I'm this much older.
That I'm no longer the person I was.
That I am less.
A Definition…
"Leadership is... remembering all of who you are."
An Idea…
Leading from your Essence
We all have essence. It's the idea that…
"…you have a natural way of being in the world that adds value and requires no thought or effort on your part". ( – Robert Ellis)
Even as experience and life events continue to shape us, we remain essentially who we are.
(And yes, teams and organisations have essence too.)
Too often we get disconnected from essence, as we navigate the complex systems of work and life. Sometimes these systems encourage us to show up or respond in ways that are not true to us. Dissonant.
Sometimes we forget who we are when we come from our best. From our essence.
You are already the leader you will be
Much of my work is partnering with clients as they prepare to take the next step in their leadership, moving into executive roles.
Most of the concerns that come up are, in one form or another, essentially the question, "How do I become that leader, the CEO/CTO that I will need to be".
The truth is, you already are the CEO you will be.
There's no overnight magic that happens.
You don't go to sleep the person you are and wake up the next morning transformed into the CEO version of you.
You already are the leader you will be.
You are a work-in-progress.
领英推荐
I hope you always will be. You are always growing and changing and learning.
Sure, what got you here won't get you there. Wherever you are, even when you're lost, you have essence.
"A goal is not a place to get to. It's a place to come from".
Be the CEO you already are.
Everything that you know.
Your natural way of being.
It's gotten you this far. The way you think. The way you relate. How you work. What you value. What you believe.
No one else does leadership the way you do.
Full permission.
Who are you?
You have many identities and many different narratives.
You are those things and much much more.
I've navigated more than one identity crisis by remembering, creating and integrating the most useful of my many identities.
Your stories, all of who you are, your essence is what powers you when you are at your most compelling.
Remember who you are
I am so glad that I went away with my friend.
Going away and losing myself is what I needed to remember.
To remember who I am.
To remember that 20 years later,
I am not less than I once was.
I am more.
An Experiment…
?? - Identity: Write a list of 100 identity statements; sentences that begin with "I am a...". List everything you are, were, want to be. If you really get stuck, list the things you are not, and notice what you think and feel about those things. What do you notice about this list?
?? - Before every meeting for the next week, set an intention about who you will BE in that meeting. eg, be a teacher, be a student, be a facilitator, be a host, be an advocate, be a devil's advocate, be a parent, be an elite athlete, be a CEO. What becomes available to you? What is possible?
An invitation to explore…
?? TED: What Makes a Good Life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness [12:37]
?? Book: What Got You Here Won't Get You There : Marshall Goldsmith
Leadership needn't be lonely!
Lead when ready!
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