Joelle K. Jay

leadership support

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Having the Clarity to Get What You Want

William

In the heart of the Silicon Valley, deep in the middle of an office park, a lone light shone in an office on the 17th floor. Inside, William sat alone at his desk. He looked at the clock. Ten p.m.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he thought to himself. “This is ridiculous.” He’d started his day at four this morning. Another eighteen hour day.

He turned back to his computer. Staring back at him was the report he’d been working on since six. After seventeen years at this high-tech firm, William had become a regional general manager for product development. At his company, he had both power and prestige. Most days William had an enviable job: flying the company jet from coast to coast, dining with powerful people in fancy restaurants, and trying out flashy new gadgets. But tonight, all of that seemed empty. He thought regretfully of his ten-year-old soccer player at home and the game he’d missed this evening. He loved his job, but at the end of the day, he felt like just another suit working away his life.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth, the new head of her accounting division for a pharmaceutical company, dashed into her office. The nine-thirty meeting she’d just left had been exciting, but it had left her with plenty to do. Since she’d just gotten this promotion, she felt eager to impress, but suddenly she felt like she’d overcommitted. She wished she could just sit down for half an hour and collect her thoughts, organize her notes, and make sure she hadn’t missed anything. But no time for that. She dumped the stack of papers she was carrying onto the desk.

“Ugh,” she thought. “The pile grows!” She grabbed another stack and hurried out. Onto the ten-thirty meeting.

Grant

Grant had a lot to be proud of. The founder and chief cardiologist of the Southwest Center for Heart Health and Wellness, he was totally invested in its success. The Heart Center had been his idea. He’d dreamed it up, secured the funding, and built the organization from the ground up. Now doctors were seeing patients and the research was underway. Three years after opening its doors, the center was a respected organization for care and research. Grant was as inspired as ever.

“What’s next for us?” Grant wondered, his mind buzzing with ideas. “A bigger grant, a research breakthrough, a new wing? Maybe we need new staff or a high-profile teaching fellow…”

With so many possibilities, Grant barely knew where to start. Suddenly he felt overwhelmed. His heart started to race. He could see so much potential, and he wanted to do it all, right now! But he was only one man, and a cardiologist at that, not an organizational expert. He knew he needed to find a way to make the Heart Center thrive.

“But,” he asked himself, “how do I do that?” He stopped walking. “Seriously. How do I?”

What William, Elizabeth, and Grant have in common is that, despite their success, they all want something more. William wants something more for his life. Elizabeth wants something more for her job. Grant wants something more for his organization. The problem is none of these leaders exactly know what their “more” is. So they keep doing what so many people do: slog through the work with their heads down, ignoring that vague, unsettled feeling that they are not truly being the leaders they could be or leading the kinds of lives they want to live.

Perhaps you’ve felt the same way. You can be motivated, driven, and extremely busy and yet still not be as clear as you could be about exactly what it is you want.

What do you want? A promotion? Time for yourself? Better relationships with your friends and family? That ever-elusive work/life balance? None of these are possible unless you stop moving long enough to figure out what you’re after. Explore your ideas. Envision a different reality. In order to achieve success in your life and as a leader, you need clarity about what you really want.

How to get that clarity is one of the ideas I share with leaders in the book, The Inner Edge: The 10 Practices of Personal Leadership. 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 The Inner Edge, you will get that clarity. Ultimately, you are not just going to become clearer about what you want. You’re actually going to get it.

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The Five Ways Leaders Lose Their Edge

A leader’s ability to sustain a high level of effectiveness is one of the biggest contributors to the company’s overall success. Unfortunately, not every leader can maintain that commitment. Why? Here are five indicators that leaders are losing their edge..

1. They ignore the vision.
Having a vision means you’re clear about what you want. You can connect to an inner source of inspiration that will call you forth and compel you to achieve your goals. Who do you want to be as a leader? What do you want to achieve?

2. They lose their focus.
Once you know your vision and what you want to achieve as a leader, stay focused on it. Finding focus is about choosing where to put your time, energy and attention. If you really want what you say you want, what areas do you have to focus on to get it?

3. They take inefficient action.
After you decide where to focus, make sure your daily action plans reflect that priority. Stop asking, “How can I do everything I need to do in a day?” and start asking, “What are the most effective actions I can take to move toward my vision?” Take those actions now.

4. They do things the hard way.
In business and in life, you always have a choice. You can continue to do things the hard way, the usual way, the way you’ve always done them. Or, you can do things your way – the way you were made to do them. Find and leverage your strengths. Where are you especially talented? What are you recognized for? What do you love to do?

5. They become disconnected from their work.
Finding fulfillment and alignment with your work means understanding what you’re striving for. The meaning. The purpose. When you lack fulfillment, you lose your edge. Your energy goes down while your stress goes up. To reconnect, consider what you want from your work. Do you want to be happy? Are you trying to reach your full potential? Do you hope to make a difference? Do you want to feel at peace? These are some of the experiences leaders seek when they seek “success.” The key to finding fulfillment at work is to identify what success means to you – not the results but the spirit of a life well lived.

Reclaim Your Leadership Edge

Avoiding common mistakes like these helps leaders lay the foundation for exceptional leadership results. You will put yourself on the path to becoming the kind of leader who changes the world … the kind of leader others will follow … the kind of leader you were meant to be.

You can join other leaders in “getting an edge” by reading The Inner Edge: The 10 Practices of Personal Leadership. Join the Inner Edge Community and be a part of the book club!

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Identification, Please?

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 MacDonald 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 to order.

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Leading on the Edge

As a leader, you have many great gifts. Your talents. Your opportunities. Your drive. 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? To excel as a leader, it’s important to give some thought to these questions. Because the reality is that as a leader, the true gift you have to give…is you.

Sharing the Practices of Personal Leadership

Helen Keller:

“When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.”

You have already discovered what’s possible for you when you’ve come to see yourself as a leader. Now it’s time to share the wealth. How will you give your gifts to the people you lead? How will you give to your organization and the world around you? How big can you can really be?

As you consider how to give of your gifts, you create more gifts for yourself, for others, and the world.

And your gifts are desperately needed.

When I wrote The Inner Edge, this “leadership crisis” was the news of the year. Stories in business journals as well as Time, Newsweek, 60 Minutes and Good Morning America all reported that accomplished, talented leaders were leaving their hard-won careers to find more meaningful ways to live. The people featured in these stories invariably described a choice between success and quality of life – and in many cases, it was one they didn’t want to make.

Our culture, our organizations, the times we live in – they have a way of conspiring against our efforts to be our best. But better business should not come at the expense of quality of life, and quality of life should not come at the expense of business results. Work and life should be able to co-exist, happily and successfully. They can and they have.

But every day, millions of people drive onto the fast-lane and race their lives away – ironically missing the fact that everything they are doing to try to improve their life is actually running them into the ground. The work weeks get longer, the stress levels rise, and talented leaders burn out or move on.

We need a whole new paradigm for work and life, and it starts with you. My dream is that the next evolution of our ambitious, achieving society will be to learn how to get the results we crave in the easiest, most natural way – the way that feeds us personally and enhances our quality of life. But no matter how great your life becomes, no matter how well your business does, you are holding back something even greater that the world urgently needs. Part of being a leader is sharing what you’ve learned and empowering others, as well.

Maybe you will be the person who plants the seeds of leadership in the mind of the next great world leader. Maybe you will be the one to help shift your organization into a healthier, more life-affirming place. Maybe you will initiate positive changes in the world that today you can’t even imagine.

People like you who see themselves as leaders aren’t just leaders in their jobs. They are leaders by definition, wherever they go. You will always be the one people look to for help and support. You will be the one who asks the questions, has the answers, or creates the opportunities for incredible things to happen. At home, at church, at work, among your friends, in your political party, when you’re with your kids, when you’re giving to charity, you will be seen as a leader.

What will you do with that potential?

It’s an honor and a privilege to be a leader – a real gift. What kind of a gift do you want to be?

In order to answer that question, you’ve got to lead on every level: your inner edge, your outer edge, and your leading edge. Then you’ll be truly leading on the edge.

For encouragement along the way, be sure to listen to the free coaching Audio, called A Parting Gift – available on the website at www.TheInnerEdge.com.

Please join us for The Inner Edge Book Club! This month we will be looking at the legacy you are leaving as a leader, and looking to the next level of leadership ahead for you. For more information, click here or email info@TheInnerEdge.com.

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Join the Leading Network (Yours!)

To get an edge – any edge, as a leader, in your life, on the competition, against your old limitations, toward your new self – you don’t have to go it alone.

In fact, you shouldn’t go it alone. You can do so much more with a team.

Call it a Mastermind, your “Dream Team,” an Imaginary Advisory Board, or just a good group of friends and associates, you will all go further faster when you support each other in your goals.

I’m not talking about doing the work, now (although a team is good for that, too). I’m talking about supporting each other in achieving your goals.

Here’s how Cheryl Scott, the former CEO of Group Health Cooperative, and now the Senior Advisor of Global Health at the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, describes the experience.

“I joined a network of other Chief Operating Officers. We talked about what it was like to be a COO and be the #2. In this network, we started to explore our own personal leadership and personal mastery. It was transformational to me. I had never taken the time to think about it before that. When you’re in your 30s and early 40s, your career means a lot but it’s not necessarily about your own values and how to “leap from where you stand.” In two years of working with [my network], as we worked with great coaches and listened to Peter Drucker and read Peter Senge, it transformed the way I felt about my work. I started to think more purposefully about what I was about, what I brought, why I did what I did and how it connected to [my company] at the time. It really changed a how I thought about leadership. It became more personal.”

You can create your own network by asking yourself a few questions.

• Who do you admire?

• Who inspires you?

• How do you think they can support you?

• How can you support them?

• If you could get these people into a room all at one time and ask them the single most important question you have, how would that help you?

You now have your personal support team. All you need to do is invite them in.

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. Email Info@TheInnerEdge.com for more information.

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The Dream Team

Many leaders have heard of a Mastermind or a Personal Support Team. Another beneficial team I recommend for leaders who want to excel is one I fondly call The Dream Team.

A dream team is a loose collection of advisors who help you get where you want to be as a leader. You turn to them because you know that on your path to success, they are further along than you. These might include people like

• leaders you admire
• leaders who have the positions you want to hold
• leaders who have the skills you want to have
• leaders who have achieved what you want to achieve.

You meet with them one by one to ask them questions, seek their guidance, and learn from their experience.

Think of your dream team like Fantasy Football team. You never actually assemble these people; in this respect they aren’t a functioning “team.” However, like a real dream team, every member of this group has been hand-selected because together, they represent the best of everything you need to be the leader you aspire to be.

To set up a dream team, you brainstorm all of the people who you think would be good members of a team whose sole purpose is to help you win at the “game” of achieving your vision. You take some time to analyze the different ways they might be able to help, make a plan for eliciting their support, and start meeting with them one by one to see what you can learn.

To create your Dream Team, use these six steps.

1. Choose the “game.”
“Choose the game” means get clear on specifically why you want a dream team. What do you want to learn from meeting with your dream team members? As always, the answer should be tied to your vision. The focus of the game is learning. On your dream team you’re the rookie, if only in this one area of your life.

2. Pick the “players.”
“Pick the players” means being thoughtful and strategic about who gets on the team. This is not the time to hang out with good buddies and old friends; it’s a time to branch out and build new relationships with people from whom you can truly learn. Among the group, it is helpful to have:

Advocates. Advocates champion you, encourage you, and contribute directly to your success, perhaps by introducing you to influential people or making you a part of their team.

Experts. Experts have information and knowledge you need to be successful. Instead of learning it all the hard way, experts help you jump to new levels of awareness by sharing their experience.

Inspirations. Inspirations are people whose accomplishments make you want to be better yourself. As you watch a person who inspires you – whether that person is your most courageous colleague, a person who has risen to the top of her field, or just someone whose approach to life you admire – you are moved to a higher level of contribution and achievement.

These roles will often cross. In fact, people who can play more than one role on your team are often your strongest supporters.

3. Set the “rules.”
The “rules” of your dream team game are how you want to play. If you don’t set up the process in a way you’ll enjoy it, you’ll be less likely to see it through. Do you want your team members to meet with you for informal conversation? Or would you prefer a formal introduction with a letter and a follow-up phone call? Are you looking for a five minute meeting in person, a fifteen-minute phone call with another, a meeting over lunch? It’s a good idea to decide how you want the process to play out so you put your best foot forward and feel comfortable along the way.

4. Define a “win.”
What is the best case scenario for this dream team?
• Are you hoping to develop long term relationships?
• Do you just want a lot of information fast?
• Do you want complex information and are willing to talk to as many people as it takes to get there?
This step is important, because it respects the time of the leaders whose advice you’re seeking while also meeting the goals that matter most to you. If what you want is concrete advice on how to set up a sole proprietorship, you can get it in a series of short, one-shot interviews. On the other hand, if you want to become steeped in the culture of high-quality leadership, you’ll want to develop deeper, more substantial relationships with the people whose work you admire.

5. Get in the game!
“Getting in the game” means approaching the people you admire to be on your team – asking them to meet with you, talking to them, and applying what you learn as you work toward your vision. If a meeting with one of your dream team members turns out to be beneficial, great. Ask them if they would mind meeting again. If not, fine. You’ve made a good connection. Some of these conversations will turn out to be a waste of time. Others will turn into the kinds of mentorships that last a lifetime.

Remember, the work you do with your dream team is not pandering or political maneuvering. There should be nothing in this process that smacks of manipulation. These are genuine, respectful conversations with people you admire to request the support you would be willing to give someone who asked it of you.

You’ll eventually find you can achieve more, and faster, when you are supported by a strong and experienced team.

For guidance on creating your Dream Team, use the free Dream Team Planning Guide. (Click here or go to www.TheInnerEdge.com, click on Worksheets & Audios, and scroll down to the 7th Practice for more free guides.)

Please join us for The Inner Edge Book Club! This month we will be creating our unique Dream Teams to advance our visions with the support of those we see as our inspiration. For more information, click here or email info@TheInnerEdge.com.