“If an egg is broken by outside force, life ends. If broken by inside force, life begins. Great things always begin from inside.”-
Jim Kwik – Founder of Kwik Learning
Growth is a conscious choice (mindset) and daily discipline (action). If you are a leader who has not devoted enough time to your development, it is possible, to immediately accelerate your leadership maturity.
The most important responsibility of a leader is to build a thriving, productive workplace community. And when a blindsiding event, like Covid-19, takes place, worthy leaders show up to guide and support people and protect business assets. These leaders try to navigate forward in unknown territory and inspire others to work together. In these times of crisis and uncertainty, they speedily focus on what they know and need to know, to grow into leaders who consistently communicate with authority and compassion. They lead from a place of internal wisdom.
GOOD LEADERS WANT TO BE GOOD PEOPLE
My interest has shifted from understanding what makes a good leader to a desire to increase the number of leaders focussed on good. This has become my definition of a worthy leader – someone who has their eye and efforts focused on influencing and delivering a positive impact, beyond their own ambition.
YOU HAVE A HUGE IMPACT
After decades of listening, in intimate forum and coaching conversations, I have noticed the profound impact leaders have on how people around them experience their work life (and often personal life).
All leaders
- Impact people’s futures and wellbeing;
- Have the power to create positive and negative change;
- Affect us all through the decisions they make or don’t make
And at a macro level the future of our planet lies in their hands. Never before has every single human been so vulnerable and reliant upon worthy leadership to guide us to a post Covid-19 world. Your staff, colleagues, peers and stakeholders are paying close attention to everything you say and do. During Covid-1, they need to experience your integrity, resourcefulness and positive action.
FOLLOW THIS MAP
Wisdom is the ability to find the truth in complex situations combined with optimal judgment as to what actions should be taken. Humans must work consciously to achieve this peak stage of human development. In my book- The Worthy Leader – I couple two universal and timeless notions – wisdom and leadership to speed up leadership development and improve business outcomes. The Map below provides a comprehensive picture of all the developmental elements you need to switch on to accelerate your growth. The map has five key elements, each of which has three co ordinates which we will explore one by one in this weekly column.
The interdependent map elements are listed below:
- Knowing – The cognitive element: Our know howwill help guide us through this crisis.
- Connecting – The emotional element: The relationships that will nourish, resource and sustain us, especially in our darkest moments.
- Being – The spiritual element: Our self-belief, sense of purpose and character will steady us.
- Discerning – The element of insight: How we make the best judgments and decisions in haste and with insufficient data, as the crisis unfolds.
- Delivering – The element of action: The actions we take in an unknown space, hopefully resulting in better outcomes.
- Impact – This concerns consequences: The lasting positive impact our decisions and actions can have on our family, friends, business and ourselves.
WE DO HAVE THE CAPACITY TO CREATE A BRIGHT FUTURE
Leaders are in every community in the world in both formal and informal positions. You won’t have to look far in your own world to find inspiring leaders. Any one of us can choose to become a worthy leader. You can choose. I look forward to serving you as a virtual coach, as we build the bridge to the future, together. Keep well. Lead well.
Maryanne Mooney has never been so inspired to help leaders connect with their potential and encouraging them to act on it. Her goal is to help leaders navigate their challenges and to support their growth. She does this through the power of meaningful and practical conversations. In the past 25 years, Maryanne has worked on five continents with more than 10,000 leaders and teams. Her focus is leadership, team and organization development, across all industry sectors. Her experience includes building two consulting firms that were market leaders. Maryanne lives in Australia and works with leading organizations throughout the world. She is an executive coach, president of the Board for the USA Senhoa Foundation and a YPO Spouse and Certified Forum Facilitator. Maryanne's method to coach leaders develop faster on their journey to wisdom is outlined in her recently published book – The Worthy Leader – From Mastery to Potential. The book is available on her website – www.worthyleader.net.
Maryanne will be writing a weekly column in this newsletter, drawing on her book and years of leadership development experience, to provide practical tips about how to be a worthy leader, in troubled times.
Here are three links to recently published articles:
https://worthyleader.net/blogs/news/keep-calm-and-lead-from-your-core
