Raising your own Leadership skills and your awareness to becoming the leader that you yourself would follow is a huge thing. It requires us to be our best self at all times and I believe that starts from within. When you hear the words Leadership Inside Out, what is the first thing that comes to mind? I have actually asked this before from people and they have had very differing views on what this might mean, so I have chosen to tell you what it means to me.
There is so much to consider when we use the term Leadership. It means different things for different people. I looked it up in the dictionary and found this:
“Leadership is the position or function of a leader, a person who guides or directs a group. It is in management, administration, directorship, control, governorship, stewardship, authoritativeness, influence, command, effectiveness, sway and clout.”
After reading that, I agree that it does reside in all of those, but I also feel that they have neglected to list the more personal and powerful parts of being a leader. I refer to things like character, integrity, honor, beliefs and values, strength to motivate, influence and empower, being trustworthy and dependable, having courage, confidence and gratitude, while always being of service to others, excelling to exceptional excellence and being filled with lasting love. John Maxwell said, “You can love people without leading them, but you cannot lead them without loving them.” I do know this to be true!
As you can see, I have a different perspective on this topic and I would like to share with you how I know and believe that Leadership really does start from the inside and shows up on the outside. I also believe that Leadership is not a destination. We are all continually striving to improve, up-level and master skills that create improvement and success. We are not going to arrive there one day and be done. This is a skill and a talent that we develop as we are willing to look on the inside and find the areas that we can improve upon and be willing to implement new behaviors or skills to develop a greater you.
To have a profound impact, you must be willing to continually evaluate and find where you deserve to grow. As we grow and move forward our influence expands. As our influence expands, we become leaders. As leaders improve, organizations become stronger and more profitable, relationships improve, your health improves and you truly come to love your life. Things
will begin going your way and success will be inevitable.
Change is how this is created! When we are willing to change and strive for higher goals and a more defined way of life, we naturally become a Leader. Think about it. Are you currently the type of leader that you yourself would want to follow? When we become the leader that we want to follow, that is when influence and effectiveness meet. That takes honoring ourselves, believing in and being a steward of our self. Wow! Who would have thought that we could be so powerful and influential by believing in our self, staying in impeccable integrity and holding our self to higher standards would make such a profound difference?
When you look at history and strive to find those who have been of highest influence, you will see that they did truly have all of these qualities and values and lived them from the Inside Out. Think of Mahatma Gandhi,
Mother Teresa,Martin Luther King, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Walt Disney, St Joan of Arc, George Washington, and even more recently people like Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins or Jim Rohn. This is of course, just the tip of the iceberg of Influential people. I am sure that you have your own list of outstanding leaders and what they mean to you. Think about what a difference just these few people have made to create our world to be different. Think of the profound impact and the incredible difference they have had on the lives of literally thousands and thousands of people. What would happen in our world if even 50% exemplified these phenomenal traits and modeled their lives after influential people?
Now on the other hand, let’s look at some extremely successful people who really did have it all EXCEPT for living the inner qualities that really do create us to be leaders. These were the ones that perhaps said it but did not live it; they were maybe a wreck on the inside that showed up on the outside. Think of Tiger Woods, O.J. Simpson or Lance Armstrong. Even huge business icons like Exxon’s disaster, Enron’s collapse or even Pan Am Airlines. I am sure that this list could go on forever, and it is not my intention to bring attention to the negatives that came of these, but yet my proof that when we build our leadership on a solid basis of character, values and principles, or from the real inside out, we sustain success and happiness. We become the kind of leaders that others naturally follow. We become the kind of leader that we want to follow!
Your beliefs, values and principles cannot be borrowed or forced from someone else. You must develop for yourself from deep inside of your core. People can influence us to strive to be better and to be all that we can be. They can motivate us to want it. But it truly does come down to YOU doing the work, implementing what you have learned and taking your life to the next level. You MUST OWN IT! You get to continually up-level and improve yourself to greatness. Owning it becomes second nature once you have implemented the work and have created the belief behind it.
Let me ask you this: “As a leader, company, family or individual, do we change when things are going well?” No. We change when we are at the end of our rope. We change when the going gets tough! We change when there is too much pain to continue to do things the way we have been doing them. Why not make the decision to change your own life before the pain is too heavy or before you feel it is broken? Why not strive for excellence because that is what motivates you? Do you realize that as you change, people respond better to you? They begin to see more of your qualities, because that is what you are showing them. I realize that this is pretty heavy stuff, but from what I have found, it is truth. We just have to be willing to really look at it for what it is.
The truth is we all respond better to influence. Authority is never the winner when it is compared with Influence, or really any time. We hate to be forced to do something and be made to feel that we have no power. We avoid those that treat us this way. We despise those that try to force us to do things even if it is things that would be good for us. We do not like being forced period. Yet we thrive in an environment that allows us to follow influence. We will go to extreme lengths to do anything asked of us if the person asking is an influential and good leader. The best leaders that we will ever have are those that live it by example, those that hold it in their heart, those that stand for what they believe and live up to their values, and those that live it from the Inside Out!
I teach my 7 Traits to CHANGE Your Life & Your World. In fact, I wrote the book on it. (Ha ha) I have found that when people follow these traits, they not only become strengthened and empowered, but have complete transformation and exceptional success in their life and in business. Here are those traits with the acronyms that go along with them:
- SHOW Sincere Service
- GROW in Genuine Gratitude
- CREATE Courageous Confidence
- EXCEL in Exceptional Excellence
- LIVE in Lasting Love
- CONNECT with Complete Communication
- IMPLEMENT Impeccable Integrity
There is not a particular order to follow with the above list, but as you develop these traits inside yourself and implement this in your life, the other traits show up on the outside. A thing like creating excellence on the inside creates exceptional success on the outside! Isn’t that what we all really want anyway?
It takes courage to create change. It takes personal accountability and follow-through. It takes determination. It also takes believing in yourself, your brilliance, your worth and deciding that you are responsible for your future and for your happiness. Leadership is always more effective when we live the 7 Traits and we live it from the inside out. Our influence expands and our lives flourish.
Are you the Leader that you want to follow? Implement these 7 Traits and become the type of leader you would want to follow!
“It’s the little things that we do on a consistent basis that will ultimately change our lives!” ~Kris Barney
To get more information, visit me at www.KrisBarney.com