Wise leadership starts with you!

We are all leaders whether it be in business, in our personal life or in our career. Many leaders strive to be authentic, but many miss the mark. I believe to be authentic and inspirational; you must be wise. Understanding yourself gives you the courage and ability to support others in a truly authentic way. Wise leadership starts with you!

Own your personal power, live by your values and integrity, this takes courage and builds trust. This raises your vibrational energy and attracts simplicity and honesty into your life as you build on your self-compassion. What we see in others is a reflection of what is within us. People come into our lives not by chance but for a reason. Often it is to help us explore a deeper level of ourselves. To learn from them and become a better person.

Recently, I started working with a client that I had worked with many years ago in the Corporate world. Let’s call her Stacey. For the last few years, she had been working overseas for some large global companies. Her skills were highly sought after, and she was chasing the fame and fortune that comes with working for these large global entities. Initially, it was exciting. She felt like she was riding on the crest of a wave and then insidiously the tides turned.

Once Stacey settled into the rhythm of the organisation, knowing that she was doing great work, the board loved the work she was doing, however it was becoming clearer that there was a disconnect.

However, Stacey’s work was acknowledged and filed away, without being executed. Unable to influence others effectively, due to her mindset. It had shifted, she was becoming negative as she was feeling undervalued. This state escalated. Stacey became more vocal within the organisation, making her quite unpopular with the board. She realised that if she did not conform to the “rules of the organisation” her work would remain a compliance exercise. Her work being filed away until the next organisational audit. Merely a reference tool!

As Max De Pree quoted “the leader is the servant who removes the obstacles that prevent people from doing their jobs”. Stacey realised that she had stopped being a leader as she felt like she was facing an avalanche of obstacles every day and couldn’t clear them away. Her team were getting mixed messages and as a result lost confidence in Stacey’s leadership, their trust in her diminished and fragmentation of the team occurred.

When we talk about authentic leadership or wise leadership, it requires integration of the thoughts in the mind, feelings of the heart and sensation from the gut. Research is now showing that when you integrate your thinking along with your intuition, you build a sound base of self-compassion this leads to you becoming a wise and trusted leader. You learn to trust yourself, you become really honest with yourself and it assists you with aligning the work you do with your values and beliefs.

It is all about influencing and not controlling your team, gaining their trust as they get to know the real you. This is hard to do when you lose sight of your values and direction.

"A boss has a title.

a leader

has the people".

-Simon Sinek

Stacey had realised that her leadership style had become confused, and she came to me seeking answers to how she could re-invent herself to become a more sustainable leader, a wise leader. After our initial chat she realised that wise leadership begins with you! This was her defining moment. Realising, she had to go within herself to become stronger, more courageous to become that fulfilled leader. She wanted to become that wise leader.

Dynamic leadership of the future requires wise leaders to have an entrepreneurial mind, that is open and expansive, always looking for opportunities and “out of the box” thinking. This needs to align with a strong moral compass and a soul that cares for themselves, others as well as the environment.

21st century leadership needs to be holistic, looking at all aspects as we are all interconnected in the universe. Moving forward in a sustainable, agile and dynamic way requires acknowledgement and consideration of all aspects to achieve the best results. Therefore, wise leadership starts with you!

So, like Stacey, when you are ready to re-energise your leadership style and develop a wise leadership model? Consider the following 3 steps:

1. Be more mindful and make conscious decisions based on your beliefs and values
2. Focus on self-compassion, really dig deep, be honest with yourself and unravel what your purpose is. Time to get comfortable with being uncomfortable!
3. A greater sense of self-compassion creates stronger connections. Building trust allowing for collaboration to amplify.

Does your leadership style need to be updated or re-energised? Reach out for a chat to see how my coaching program may help you?

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Joan is a Transformational Health and Wellness Expert. She consults to heart-centric organisations to help implement their health programs, mentors high performing women as well as running niche retreats to reset, heal and transform. Joan help's ignite intuition and light people up from the inside-out. When you are ready, lets chat to see how she may help you at [email protected]