Leaders Lead Themselves Archives

What’s in Your Self-Resource Toolbox?

By Jalene Case

“We have exceeded our surge capacity,” is a phrase I heard recently from Jennifer Louden. I thought, “Yes! That’s what it feels like! My inner surge protector is fried.” At the same time, I realized that I’ve been learning, along with my clients, friends, and family, how to survive the recent deluge of disasters. I bet you have, too.

Changes, especially uncontrollable changes, can leave you craving a way to get beyond the tornado of emotions so you can stand on firm ground again. How can you help yourself move forward? Self-resourcing. By gathering support resources, you can be there for yourself, and as a result, be there for the people you care about most.

Move from Blocking to Supporting Yourself

By Jalene Case

“I’m my own worst enemy!” Have you ever said this or heard a friend or colleague say it? It can feel frustrating and demotivating to know precisely what we want to accomplish yet take actions that move us in the opposite direction. How can you get out of your own way and support yourself in getting more of what you want?

After working in organizations for more than three decades, I started my own business a few years ago. It surprised me that the gnarliest challenges came from inside me, not from the external skills I was learning. Internal voices that overly criticized and structures that didn’t work blocked me from reaching my goals, dreams, and life purpose. Yes. It’s a big deal! Growing skills to support ourselves is essential if we want to create purposeful, meaningful, lives we love.

The Power of Coming Back to Your Foundation

emotional intelligence, values, creating your life

By Jalene Case

Experiencing imbalance and balance is part of living. How might we lead ourselves from chaos to order? Carl Jung said, “In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.” There’s a new way forward waiting for you to discover it. Before making direction-changing decisions, check the integrity of your foundation. Who are you now?

During a coaching session, my client was grappling with a decision that would change the trajectory of her career. She felt clear about what she didn’t want; however, the vision for what she wanted was still fuzzy. We were working together on clarifying her future when she brilliantly said, “I want to revisit my foundation.” To her that meant recognizing what she learned in her current professional role over the last several years, plus naming her values, priorities, and focus.

Drop Your Armor to Get What You Want

By Jalene Case

What would it look like to drop the armor you’ve been using to defend yourself? What are you protecting yourself from? I believe we want to shield our soul’s desires because we don’t want to risk injuring them. The crazy thing is that when we keep them locked up in a tower with the draw bridge lifted, we block out fulfillment, accomplishment, and joy.

A coaching client shared that she wanted to drop her armor and put down her weapons. The declaration surprised me because we were talking about what she wanted to do, not what someone else was asking her to do. As we dug deeper, she realized that she was blocking herself with unhelpful, unkind thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and actions. Knowing what she wanted was not the problem. Allowing herself to make progress toward her practical goals and soul’s desires was the challenge she faced.

The Difference

By Dr. Jeremy Graves,

If you would have told me in January that a large percentage of the population would be working from home, I would have never believed it. I have been watching the rise of the remote workforce and even have had the opportunity to work with teams and leaders in creating a remote environment. However, I think it’s important of us to remember the place of words and the power of mindset.

You see we are not simply working from home because we are telecommuting or we have the opportunity to work remotely, we are at home in the midst of a crisis but still trying to work. Read More

Befriending Measurements

By Jalene Case

I recently had a meeting with a colleague during which I was vigorously sharing my detailed analysis of 2019 and a clear plan for 2020. My colleague paused, starring at one number and said, “Wait. Did you say all of this is income going away?” I flippantly said, “Yes, but look at what I have planned!” Suddenly I saw that even though I had looked at the numbers, I hadn’t truly seen the one with the negative impact.

My enthusiastic nature leads me toward highlighting positive progress, and even hiding negative indicators so I won’t see them and feel like a failure. This is nice of my inner cheerleader but not helpful in the long run.

Finding Opportunity in Times of Worry

By Dr. Evans Baiya

We can all agree that we are facing challenging times. COVID-19 and public precautions to slow the spread of it have left businesses in a space full of unknowns. And for many people, unknowns equal worry. It is natural for leaders (all people in fact) to feel overwhelmed during moments of crisis, especially crisis that is unpredictable and with many factors they cannot control.

Yet there is possibility, even in times of uncertainty. In times like these, we encourage leaders to work through a very simple model that helps to identify priorities and define proper resolutions within those priorities, which ultimately leads to successful outcomes. It is the Worry-Opportunity-Barrier Model.

Effective leaders embrace the mindset that crises are guaranteed, but how you deal with a crisis is an integral part of leadership. Ultimately, great leaders learn through crisis. The situation either gets better or it gets worse, based on how you handle the most stressful moments. Every crisis brings with it some stressors. It is common for leaders, especially those who feel the added weight of responsibility on their shoulders, to worry. But you cannot worry yourself out of a crisis!

Dancing Down the Mountain: A Lesson in Change Management

By Lori McNeill

I recently took a trip to the mountains of Austria. My destination was a beautiful ski resort and my goal was to learn how to ski. In order to accomplish this goal, I enlisted the help of a talented ski instructor named Florian. What I eventually came to realize was the lessons I learned that week applied directly to change management.

On the first day, Florian and I worked at the very bottom of the mountain, as I learned the fundamentals of skiing. These were not hard concepts to learn, but it took practice and repetition to acquire the skills. After day 1 of practicing fundamentals on the bunny slope, we got on the lift to make our climb to my first challenge.

Looking down from the top of the lift, the incline appeared to be too steep for my ability. If I am completely honest, I will admit that tears were streaming down my face and I felt a sense of dread and defeat before we even started our descent. Read More

Trying Easy Rather Than Hard

By Jalene Case

From playing a sport to working a job, the phrase “trying hard” implies that we’re attempting to perform at our very best, pushing ourselves harder to go beyond our limits. Why? I believe it’s because we want to be successful on our own terms.

We receive accolades for trying hard: “She’s a hard worker.” “He’s trying hard to be the best leader he can be.” Yay for us! Most of the time. The problem comes when trying imperceptibly slips from positive to negative.

On the positive side, trying drives us to go all-in toward what we truly want to accomplish. It feels light, invigorating, and clear, like we know what we want and how to get it.

On the negative side, trying forces us to do what we think we should do (a hallmark red flag!) which causes overcomplication and stress. It feels heavy, tense, and anxiety ridden with a tinge of panic, ready to explode at any moment.

How to Lead When You Don’t Have a Title

By Ron Price

How many times have you encountered someone at an event and knew by their demeanor, the way they spoke, the way they interacted with others and how others responded to them, just by their very presence that they were a leader? Their leadership wasn’t forced, they weren’t the loudest person in the room, the one with the nicest suit or biggest title, but they just exuded leadership.

There are two types of influential leadership that are not based on position or title, at least at their most fundamental level. You have a lot of say over how much influence you develop in these two kinds of leadership.

The first one is character leadership, which is about who you are, how you manage yourself and how you treat others. This type of leadership is in direct proportion to how adept you have become in these areas.

12 3 4 5 6 7

What’s in Your Self-Resource Toolbox?

Move from Blocking to Supporting Yourself

The Power of Coming Back to Your Foundation

Drop Your Armor to Get What You Want

The Difference

Befriending Measurements

Finding Opportunity in Times of Worry

Dancing Down the Mountain: A Lesson in Change Management

Trying Easy Rather Than Hard

How to Lead When You Don’t Have a Title

OUR THINKING

Categories

OUR THINKING

Categories

The State of Leadership 2020. Get your free copy of the report today