Leadership for non-leaders - It’s up to you

Posts

Mar 9

In my last blog, I said, leadership is what you make out of it. And that is the crux of it. What YOU make out of it.

Leadership manifests itself on the outside but is inherently an inside job. Remember when I wrote that the recognised leaders lead themselves, propelled forward by their dreams and passions? That’s self-leadership - leading your own life, setting your own course, following it through its ups and downs, adjusting it where needed. And because your life includes work, self-leadership also reflects how you associate with your colleagues, managers, clients and how it translates into this bigger concept of leadership.

So, how do you lead yourself and what do you need to successfully lead yourself? Self-leadership requires resilience and resilience requires mindfulness and self-awareness.

Why do I say self-leadership requires resilience? Because in leading our own life, in setting the course ourselves, we will stumble, fall and face adversity. How often were the aforementioned leaders knocked back in their ideas and in their progress? And yet, they persevered, trusted themselves, they forged ahead. Resilience helps us get back up and on track again. Without resilience, babies would not learn to walk, we wouldn’t have Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling’s script was allegedly rejected 12 times) or light bulbs (Thomas Edison and his team worked on at least three thousand different theories to develop an efficient incandescent lamp), and Franklin D. Roosevelt would not have been president of the U.SA. four times in spite of being paralysed from the waist down by polio before running for office. Have a look at the life journeys of Victor Frankl, Michael Jordan, Albert Einstein, Christopher Reeve, Gandhi, Oprah and Kamala Harris and you will find immense resilience in the face of adversities thrown their way.

Where did this resilience come from? Resilience has many components and having a dream, a passion, a goal is a cornerstone that allows us to bounce back. In Victor Frankl’s words: “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” More positively framed it means that a person who has found a purpose in life can overcome any obstacle. What is your passion in life that will fuel your resilience?

And how does mindfulness build our resilience and support us in our self-leadership? When I refer to mindfulness, I mean paying attention to the present moment, not tuning out or trying to stop your thoughts, that wouldn’t work anyway. Being mindful affects the way our brains function by tapping into and changing our brain systems for resilience, attention, connection and awareness. In other words, mindfulness benefits us emotionally, behaviourally, mentally and physically. On that note, Novak Djokovic, currently tennis’ longest No. 1 ranked player, says that mindfulness has helped him overcome fear, anger, worry and self-doubt. He explains that mindfulness has enabled him to focus fully on the present moment, notice negative thoughts and emotions and allow them to pass (https://www.tennismentalskills.com/novak-djokovics-mental-training). The strength of mindfulness lies in its ability to get us from reacting to responding. In a world that is full of distractions, it helps us maintain focus; when we fall into the trap of BAU and complacency, it can make us alert and curious; and when we feel stressed and overwhelmed, it can bring us back to responding intentionally, not reacting automatically.

We may not all be playing on the world stages of politics, tennis or innovation and our mindfulness, resilience and self-leadership may not be in the spot light for all to disseminate and analyse, but we can take a leaf out of their books.

So to circle back to the beginning, leadership on the outside is self-leadership on the inside and only you can take responsibility for that. You don’t need a group of people for you to lead, you can just start with yourself. I look forward to being part of your adventure with yourself, for yourself and to yourself.