I believe all of us are called to be leaders in many different arenas of life. Being a leader is less title and more mindset. My personal belief is that the word leader is a verb not a noun. We don’t wake up one day a leader, but rather we are always becoming leaders…
Be ‘Process’ Not ‘Results’ Orientated
An aspect of developing a leadership mindset with your team, your personal performance, or the goals and projects you’re working on is having a ‘process’ not ‘results’ orientated focus.
In other words, define the future for tomorrow, but move your feet toward that outcome today. This one idea is powerful in itself. With a present focus, we can take action, choose right now what thoughts, steps and intentions to cultivate that will ultimately build our future moments. A future orientation focus is painful, it describes our situation ‘for one day when’, watching and waiting to see if that individual will change their behaviour or for things to get better. Thoughts like:
“I’ll give Jenny three more months to get her act together”
“The culture stinks around here”
“Being in the company long enough warrants my promotion. I will wait until I get that title before I start doing more around here”
“These are the targets we must hit this month”
These idea’s rob us of power. They are ‘results’ focused that lie in the future. We cannot impact there destiny. Instead we need to commit to the process.
When we take an opportunity to influence the outcome we become leaders not victims to our situations.
Taking Action:
- Instill a ‘coaching’ management style to begin improving employee capability and performance
- Be a thermostat not a thermometer. Manage your thoughts with excellence during turbulent times; lead with empathy, focus on solutions, and be the cheerleader not the cynic
- Shine where you hold responsibility right now. Life’s too short to lead with mediocrity
- Be proactive and resourceful in attaining the outcome, i.e. what does my team actually need to do here to impact this result?
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Speaker | Coach | Trainer | at Job Performance Coaching & Training
I help executives, managers & team leaders to influence human behaviour and in essence get more out of individuals and teams in terms of execution and results, sustainably. I help both leaders and employees improve excellence, energy & productivity in the workplace. I do this by teaching three specific skill sets: 1. Dealing with having too much to do 2. Staying cool under pressure 3. Influencing Behaviour -(Presenteeism, Absenteeism, Underperforming staff, Constructive Feedback)
Richard Schembri, Entrepreneur - Team Coach and Mentor in Network Marketing at Team Berrygood
Great article Benjamin! The first paragraph rings so true in my profession. I see many leaders that they have done enough and are superior to others. We are always learning to be better leaders and the ones who stop learning, start sinking. Thank You.
Benjamin Young, Speaker | Coach | Trainer | at Job Performance Coaching & Training
Thanks Richard. Thats undoubtedly true, thanks for sharing!