What is Leadership?

What does leadership look like to you?

I spend endless hours in coaching groups learning to be a better leader.  I have been attending leadership camps from the time I became 6th grade Vice President of Student Council. The one thing that I have learned that never changes is that the intention of my heart wins every time over trying to be perfect. 

There is no magic bullet, no perfect recipe, no personality profile, mentor, book or coaching group that will make me perfect. I will continue to make mistakes but as I lead those that want to know my heart, see my vision and understand intentions. I can breathe easier knowing they know I am human.

I continue to strive to be the best leader I can be. Besides communicating my vision to those I lead, acknowledging when I fail to my team is the #1 thing that allows my team to know my heart. 

Dan Sullivan founder of Strategic Coach has a tool that my team and I use called a Transformer. You acknowledge what you "own" in the failure, not blaming anyone else, what worked in the situation and what did not work and then if you could do it all over again, what you would do differently. Training yourself to acknowledge failure and then self-correct is crucial to leading others well.

I have used this transformation tool with my children, mental coaching of sports teams and every day in our business.

It's shocking to me, how many so-called leaders fail when it comes to being able to acknowledge that they make mistakes. When a key leader on my team tells me they have nothing to do a Transformer on that week, it's a warning call that to me. If I am unable to get them to acknowledge their mistakes they are like the crew of the Titanic, hearing the alarm but thinking they are unsinkable. We all know how that story ends....

Being vulnerable enough to share not only share my mistakes through Transformers but also what my intentions were (especially when the outcomes did not align with what I hoped would be the result) creates an environment of trust and transparency. Guessing someone’s intentions rarely creates a positive result. 

While showing your heart is critical, I could never be the leader I am today (not perfect but moving forward every day) if I did not learn from the best of the best and have accountability to others in leadership roles.

An early mentor of mine told me that true leadership is being able to lead without authority. I am a student of this philosophy every day.

What do you think leadership looks like?

Here is a list of groups and books that I would highly recommend if you want to be the best leader you can be.

Organizations that I am part of and highly recommend:

·    https://www.eonetwork.org/

·    https://www.strategiccoach.com/

·    https://geniusnetwork.com/

Recommended Books:

• ·      Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill
• ·      The Screwtape Letters – C.S. Lewis
• ·      Unique Ability – Catherine Nomura and Julia Waller
• ·      The Laws of Lifetime Growth – Dan Sullivan and Catherine Nomura
• ·      Traction – Gino Wickman
• ·      Mastering the Rockefeller Habits – Verne Harnish
• ·      21 Day Miracle – Ed Rush
• ·      The Checklist Manifesto –  Atul Gawande
• ·      Willpower Doesn’t Work – Benjamin Hardy
• ·      Mindset – Carol Dweck
• ·      Start With Why – Simon Sinek
• ·      Outwitting the Devil – Napoleon Hill
• ·      Predictable Revenue – Aaron Ross, Marylou Tyler
• ·      Flow – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• ·      Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
• ·      The Surrender Experiment – Michael Singer
• ·      Memory Rescue – Dr. Daniel Amen