What makes a great Leader? We often think of the traits of strong personality, public speaking prominence, and convicted commitment. Vocal, Prominent, Confident, and Ever Present.
Can it be said, however, that those who are truly admirable do not need to be in the public eye?
The question we pose today: What if You Didn’t Need to be Validated?
Is our need to step out in front of a group and gather applause a characteristic of confidence or insecurity?
It is evident that Leadership is sorely lacking in today’s professional world. I equate this to the fact that the task of Management has overwhelmed the Vision of Leadership. In many organizations the true visionaries choose to stay in individual contributor roles, start their own companies, or leave for different opportunities. In reality, those who are passionate in their conviction are just not willing to ‘play the game’. Office politics, meetings about meetings, and the need to restrain genuine thought are management traits that tend to appal true leaders. So, the defacto Managers accept leadership roles as the ‘safe bet’ and the truly inspired become uninspired.
How Can We Take the Power Back?
- Create your own job description
- Recreate yourself every day
- Ignore the unimportant
The Goals of Self
Reports are homework to document effort. They are also meaningless. The need for metrics to prove professional existence makes people…numbers.
Developing the ability to find personal significance in each task is mastery of your professional existence. You don’t need to quit your job. You need to understand what every task means to you, how you can adjust each chore to your vision, and to prioritize accordingly.
Ask Yourself:
- Who Am I
- Who Do I Want To Be?
- What Does This Mean to the Rest of the World?
Stagnation is Damnation
When you stop moving forward, you start falling back. This doesn’t mean you have to leap into every mundane task. It means you should recommit and adjust your vision every day. The best way to embrace change is to create it for yourself.
Ask yourself:
Is it better to master one thing or experience many things?
The Best Advice…
From time to time, I get caught up in the unimportant. I let personality differences get in the way of larger goals, I get hung up on passing comments, or mundane detail derails genuine intent.
I once asked my boss…how do you stay level headed in the midst of all these personality clashes?
He said: I ignore them!
Have we come to accept less because we expect less? Are we victims of circumstance? Are we products of our environment? Is our energy wasted on other people’s goals?
Kick the peddles out of you way and climb mountains!
Life is far too short to get hung up in the mundane defacto chores of personal validation.
You Are Great Because You Know You Are Great!
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”
– Albert Einstein
