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Who are you as a leader? I don’t mean your title, I mean, what kind of a leader are you?

At IBM, Senior Vice President of Human Resources Randy Maconald shares this advice: “Do not cast yourself in the image of what a leader is supposed to do.” What makes you powerful is developing the image of who you want to be as a leader.

As an individual, it’s important for you be clear about what kind of a leader you are. Everyone is a leader in some way. Throughout this eCourse, I will be referring to “leaders,” and I do not just mean presidents and CEOs. I mean you.

A business or corporate leader. Corporate leaders often hold leadership positions in their organizations: president, vice president, director, manager, or supervisor. You may even own the company. But you can also serve as a leader in your company even without the fancy title by the way you act and interact.

A professional leader. You can be a leader in your profession whether you are a consultant, entrepreneur, or an independent professional like an attorney, speaker, or physician. 

A community leader. You may have a leadership role in public service, as a non-profit board member, in your church, with the Girl or Boy Scouts, or in your neighborhood.

A family leader. As a mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, grandparent or cousin, you may take an active part in creating your family environment.

An inspirational leader. You may be a leader among your friends, family and fans by the way you conduct yourself – as reflected by your character, your choices, and your demeanor. 

A thought leader. You could be leading change with original ideas and new ways of thinking.

An action leader. Maybe you’re the one with the energy to make things happen and the charisma to get others to do the same.

The leader of your own life. No matter who you are or what you do, you get to take the lead in your life. No one else will do that for you. No one else can. You may or may not have a fancy suit, a name plate on the door, and an assistant just outside. But every single one of us is leading a life, which may be the most exciting kind of leadership of all.

In what ways are you a leader?

Did you enjoy this profile? You may be interested in the eCourse, Getting an Edge: 21 Ways World Class Leaders Share Their Secrets for Leading and Living Well. Each of 21 profiles just like this one comes in a separate email – once a day for 21 days. Click here for more information.

“Everything works out for the best.”

“If it’s meant to be, it will happen.”

Have you ever uttered these words? While many people believe at some level that “things happen for a reason,” they act as though they don’t trust the idea. If it really is true that that everything works out for the best, then every situation is perfect in some way.

Here’s an example.

Zach, an attorney, discovered this when he learned his business partner, Kareem, was leaving the practice. Zach and Kareem had built a business from scratch; he thought growing it big was what they both wanted. But people change. Kareem changed. He didn’t want a business anymore. He didn’t want the headache and the pressure. Now he just wanted to join a bigger firm, not build one.

Zach was determined to talk him out of it. He tried everything to help Kareem see the possibilities, and he tried to see every possibility for himself. But Kareem’s answer was no. He had decided. He was leaving.

After the emotions subsided (anger, resentment, denial, and determination), Zach took the practice over by himself.

“Well, at least one positive thing came out of this,” Zach thought as he signed the documents. “Now I get to be president.”

But Zach got to be a lot more than that. As he started to shoulder the practice on his own, he became more confident as a businessman. He took the practice in his own direction. He made bold decisions, branched out and hired more attorneys. The business grew, as did his reputation and profits. Best of all, he maintained a friendship with Kareem, who stayed in his corner – no longer employed by the business but still rooting for its success.

Zach didn’t know when Kareem said “no” to the business that the business was saying “yes” to Zach.  A situation that at first seems to be a disaster can actually turn out to be perfect. 

Looking for the perfect is especially helpful when you get an untimely surprise.

• Benjamin got the promotion he wanted a year before he felt ready.
• Enrique was awarded a giant contract the same year he was planning to retire.
• Martina, the next-in-line for a public office, had to step into the job when an elected official had to step down for personal reasons.
• Neal found out that after years of family planning, he and his wife were about to have not one, not two, but three babies.

In each of these situations, leaders were able to reframe a situation that initially felt wrong by believing it must have to be right. They looked for the perfect.

Believing life might be perfect as it is doesn’t mean you play a passive role in your life. You are still leading your life; you are still becoming the leader you want to be and creating your vision. But you’re doing so with an open mind, realizing that for reasons we don’t understand, some things might be “right” for us that we wouldn’t have chosen for ourselves. Other things might be “wrong” for us even if we thought they were right.

Sometimes we find the opportunities we’re looking for, but other times those opportunities find us.

Exercise

• Recall a time in your life when you got a “no” or “yes” that you weren’t expecting – maybe unanticipated (good or bad) news or a surprising change in direction.
• How did the situation work out?
• In hindsight, what was perfect?

The ideas in this article are drawn from The Inner Edge: The 10 Practices of Personal Leadership and the accompanying eBook called The Extension. The eBook is designed to give you simple, engaging personal leadership exercises and activities to help you be a better leader, and lead a better life. Get your copy today! Click here for a Preview and to Order.

Leah Zellner, the president of a national resort group, dashed into her office, throwing off her coat.

“I’m sorry I’m late!” she gasped. “It’s been a crazy day!”

For the next five minutes, she raced through a litany of concerns: leading her company as its first female president, finalizing a merger, launching a new global strategy, moving into a new office, speaking at a client conference, throwing her daughter a wedding, and expecting her first grandson.

“You certainly are busy!” I commented.

“You have no idea,” she wheezed. “Meetings, calls, invitations, a trip toNew York…”

I watched Leah rush about her office. Here was a woman who seemed to have everything she wanted: a glamorous, high-paying job, exciting travel, and a happy growing family. But today everything that made up her charmed life seemed to be getting in the way.

I wondered, “Is this what our busy lives have come to? That our momentous life events have become items to check off a list?”

Leah flopped into the chair beside me. “You know, it used to be that it was Ready, Aim, Fire. Then it became Ready, Fire, Aim. Now it’s justFIRE!FIRE!FIRE!”

Leah’s life as a leader mirrors many I’ve seen in my years as an executive coach. Every day, I see talented, accomplished leaders struggling because they’re too stressed, too stretched, or too tired of sacrificing. As a result, many businesses are losing their leaders, and many leaders are losing themselves. It’s become a stubborn predicament: how to achieve success without sacrificing your quality of life.

There’s another way to be successful as a leader in today’s world that is more thoughtful. More strategic. More reflective. You can learn to lead in a way that preserves your talent while enhancing your quality of life. You can succeed without the sacrifice. Leading well and living well, both at the same time. In the pages of this book, you will discover a new way to be a better leader…and lead a better life.

Leah is one of many leaders I profile in the book, The Inner Edge: The 10 Practices of Personal Leadership. This book isn’t about leading your organization or leading your team. It’s about leading yourself.

To learn more, go to www.TheInnerEdge.com. You’ll find an overview of the book, endorsements by such thought leaders as Marshall Goldsmith and Stephen Covey, and more!

In a few hundred years, when the history of our time is written…the most important event historians will see is not technology, nor the Internet, not e-commerce. It is an unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time – literally – substantial and rapidly growing numbers of people have choices. For the first time, they will have to manage themselves. And society is totally unprepared for it.

Peter Drucker

Do you think that’s true?

Is it true for you?

I spend a lot of time interviewing business leaders, and I’m often surprised at how disheartened they seem. Sometimes I wonder if this might be why: we have more to think about than ever, and somehow we have to be the ones to make it all work. When they feel disempowered, here’s what leaders tell me.

We are overwhelmed. Just juggling your workload fills every day; add in children, home ownership, personal finances, and the rest of your life, you can feel like you’re ready to collapse.

We are discouraged. Being a leader isn’t always all it’s made out to be. The pressure, the responsibility, and the poor models of leadership in corporate executives and public figures can sometimes make us wonder if it’s really worth it.

We are disengaged. Engagement is the degree to which you feel committed to your job, and it is a critical aspect of performance. Unfortunately, instead of gaining a sense of meaning from our work sometimes we just feel unmoved.

We are needed. As leaders we don’t always get what we need, but our businesses desperately need us. Nevertheless, we live in the Information Age, and business is driven by our knowledge. As leaders, we are needed to compete.

We are talented. The good news is that despite these challenges, it turns out we’re really talented. Years of Gallup research has proven that we are at our best when we are most ourselves. and it’s clear there’s a lot more potential to be tapped.

We are leaving. Crowded by the pressures of modern leadership, we can’t seem to make it all work. That’s why so many leaders are responding in a quiet, decisive way: they’re taking their marbles and going home. With low set-up costs and instant access to global markets, we no longer need corporate infrastructure to fulfill our ambitions. We can do it on our own. We live in a free agent nation:[i] going out on our own is flexible, it’s freeing, and it’s fun.

But having the opportunity to leave one’s job isn’t always the “win” it might seem. Businesses lose highly talented leaders, and leaders lose their home in the world of work.

What we need is a way for leaders to learn how to be better leaders while at the same time enhancing the quality of life that keeps them at their best. And we do. It’s called Personal Leadership – an aspect of leadership that honors the work leaders do as well as the people they are.

Are you practicing Personal Leadership? Take the quiz to find out! Go to www.TheInnerEdge.com and click on Worksheets and Audios. You’ll find a FREE Self-Assessment to help you understand where you already excel and where you need to put more attention to be effective in leading yourself.

One of the most powerful strategies known for achieving your goals is visualization. You’ve heard the stories – the ones about the world class athletes who envision the perfect performance in their heads over and over before they compete, or the seminar participants who learned to break boards with their bare hands simply by seeing themselves do it in their heads.

So you already know visualizing is important. But do you actually visualize what you want? Does anyone actually sit themselves in the lotus position on their area rug and meditate on what they’re trying to create?

Yes, actually. They do. Some of the best leaders I know – the most accomplished, the most celebrated, and in some cases the most famous – got there because they knew they could make it. They saw it. In their minds.

Listen to Bonnie Hagemann, the CEO of Executive Development Associates, who describes her way of practicing visualization.

I [practice visualization] especially when I know I have something important coming up – a presentation, a speech, a meeting, anything that gets my stomach in a knot. I will take time on my schedule or get up extra early to really visualize the whole meeting. I always envision it going well even if there are rockets coming in. I see it going well and people engaging with me and shaking my hand and everyone’s happy at the end.

I do this. Every day. First I start dreaming. The dream is like when you’re sitting around like a little kid dreaming about what your life is going to be like. Then I get a visual of it. I start envisioning myself in that role. I get pictures that will illustrate me as a speaker, an author, a businesswoman, or whatever. I write down what that looks like. Then I start doing the actions that need to be done to start moving towards it.

Maybe you aren’t “living the dream” right now, but when you envision the future you want, your dream will feel so close you can taste it.

Did you enjoy this profile? You may be interested in the eCourse, Getting an Edge: 21 Ways World Class Leaders Share Their Secrets for Leading and Living Well. Each of 21 profiles just like this one comes in a separate email – once a day for 21 days. Click here for more information.

What is your secret wish?

This is one of my favorite questions to ask clients. It’s not the kind of question you normally expect from a leadership coach, and it takes people by surprise. Almost always, the response I get is a thoughtful silence, accompanied by a tiny smile, and then an almost conspiratorial whisper as they lean forward and confide in me something they have barely dared to admit to themselves.

“I want to be the company president.”

“I want to retire by 45!”

“I want to be a stay-at-home mom.”

“I want to be the CEO.”

“I want to take a long hot bath every single day.”

Some of these wishes are easier to grant than others. Simply stating that wish about the bath got one client to launch a remodel of her bathroom that very same day and get the sunken bathtub of her dreams. The others took several years to come true, and some never do. But more often than not, just saying the words aloud makes them come alive.

It happens like this. Somewhere in the dark recesses of your mind, your secret wish hides, afraid to come out and face potential ridicule or failure. When you bring it out in the open, you see that it’s actually not so crazy after all. Other people have had this wish; why not you?

You decide to share it with someone else – someone close to you just to see what they say. Surprisingly, they think the wish is a good idea. More than that, they assumed this was where you were headed all along, and they’re so glad you’ve now realized it too.

Suddenly you decide to start taking your wish seriously. Privately, maybe, but seriously. You build some goals around it. You take some action. Your secret wish becomes a point in the future towards which you orient your present, and you start moving closer every day. Step by step, you move closer to your wish, and as you do it becomes bigger and bigger until it is no longer a wish but a plan, and then a decision, and then…your life.

In the legendary words of that famous coach Jiminy Cricket, “Anything your heart desires will come to you, when you wish upon a star…as dreamers do.” Today, take a break from innovation, strategy and implementation, find a star and make your secret wish. 

Exercise

Turn the page and put the blank Your Wish worksheet in front of you. Anything is possible. Think about it. Write about it. Dream. What’s your secret wish?

The ideas in this article are drawn from The Inner Edge: The 10 Practices of Personal Leadership and the accompanying eBook called The Extension. The eBook is designed to give you simple, engaging personal leadership exercises and activities to help you be a better leader, and lead a better life. Get your copy today! Click here for a Preview and to Order.

 Wherever you go, go with all your heart.

-Confucius

Today, in taking Confucius’ advice, I’d like to share what I see in you from the heart.

I want to acknowledge you for taking the responsibility and the opportunity to be your best as a leader. You are an inspiration. Along with the hundreds of leaders I’ve met whose sincere efforts to succeed in the way that only they can, you are a true leader. You are the one who makes a difference. You are the one who changes the world. Your vision, your potential, your efforts – they leave a mark.

My wish for you is that what you achieve will far exceed any vision you’ve dared to dream. I hope that you will be not just clear but also honest and courageous about what you really want for yourself, for the people around you, for your life, for your leadership, and for the world at large.

There are times you’ll lose heart. You’ll get busy, you’ll get tired, you’ll forget, you’ll have setbacks, you’ll drift away. But you won’t get lost. You have everything you need to succeed, right there within you.

Along the way, I’d like to invite you to learn more about yourself and what’s possible for you by exploring what I call Your Inner Edge. It’s the heart of your leadership.

To learn more, come discover The Inner Edge: The 10 Practices of Personal Leadership. You will find it at www.TheInnerEdge.com. There I’ve included for you an overview of the book, endorsements by such thought leaders as Marshall Goldsmith and Stephen Covey, and more.

As you go forward into the future that awaits you, know that every step you take to improve your leadership is going to enrich your life and the lives of others. You will be the kind of leader who changes the world. The kind of leader others will follow. The kind of leader you were meant to be.

 

As an executive coach, I know the heart of a leader, and here’s what I know about you:

You are amazing. You are dedicated, smart and capable. You are accomplished and have had many successes. You are already a masterpiece.

But you know something deep in your heart: more is possible for you. No matter who you are – a person who is just starting to see yourself as a leader or a well-established leader with an illustrious career; a leader struggling to find your place or one who knows exactly what you want; a leader who’s been too strung out or one who has been newly fired up – you have the potential to be even more. You have greatness in you.

As a leader, you have many great gifts. Your talents. Your opportunities. Your drive. By seeing yourself as a leader, you have not just received those gifts, you have torn them open and discovered how they work. Now the question is, what are you going to do with those gifts? How are you going to share them with the people around you and the rest of the world?

What kind of a gift do you want to be?

I want you to give some thought to this questions, because it’s the question you’ll need to answer to really lead on the edge of what’s possible for you.

For a little encouragement along the way in the form of an audio you can listen to and keep, please go to my website at www.TheInnerEdge.com (click on Worksheets and Audios)  and get the FREE audio called A Parting Gift. It’s called a Parting Gift because it’s the last of a series of free resources on my website, but don’t worry – I’m not going anywhere. Whenever you need a little boost, you can listen to this audio again and again to reconnect to your value as a leader.

Because by now you’re starting to realize, the true gift you have to give…is you.