Lead yourself before you lead others

“I think I want to step into leadership, but I have trouble getting people to listen to me. I can’t convince them to agree with my ideas.”

Leadership is less about position and more about influence.

Those who can connect, communicate and create a new future ARE leaders.

TLDR:

• To lead others, you must be able to lead yourself

• Leaders see people, problems, potential and priorities

• If you can master setting and pursing a vision for your own life, you are one step closer to becoming a leader who guides and influences others.

Holding the vision

Leader see. They have vision. In fact, holding and setting vision is one of the key jobs of a leader. You can’t guide anyone if you don’t know where you’re going in the first place.

Leaders see:

• People

• Problems

• Potential

• Priorities

Leaders see people

Managing moods, understanding motivations, keeping up morale and navigating misinformation are all essential skills for leaders. If you are a leader but you don’t SEE the people you are working with - you will not be effective.

Seeing people requires slowing down. Until leaders slow down and take the time to connect with people, they will not catch the nuance and specifics that are required to see and know people.

• Books to read to help you see people: How to Know a Person by David Brooks

Leaders see problems

Risk management takes guts. It takes courage to look at what could go wrong. To face the music and take stock of the resources we have and the ones we don’t. To be honest about what challenges we might face.

A lot of charismatic leaders want to bring hope and excitement to projects - and while all that good energy is important and helpful, if it comes at the expense of looking seriously at what might go wrong, that leader will fail to plan for potential risks and jeopardize the project.

Resources to help with being present to risks: Taking Smart Risks by Doug Sundheim

Leaders see potential

Leaders must have the capacity to lift their heads from the weeds of the day to day and look to the horizon. They must be hungry for what’s next. They must understand that the winds are constantly changing and make decisions that position their team for success, not only now, but in the future as well.

When leaders get caught up in the present process and fail to make time for forward thinking, they risk missing what adaptations and adjustments are needed to continue to thrive.

Leaders also see potential people. Giving someone on your team the opportunity to grow (and even possibly make mistakes) can be an investment in the future and one that is wise to make often.

Leaders see priorities

Leaders must have a strong sense of what is most important that it guides which tasks, projects and objectives are priority and which ones can come later.

Without the ability to understand what needs to come first, and how each initiative impacts the others - leaders can get caught up in a lack of direction or re-direction in a way that throws off momentum and confuses those they are leading.

What if I’m not a leader?

The same skills a tech lead or CTO might need to lead a company or project are the same skills we need to lead ourselves.

When we don’t feel like we are growing, when we feel stuck in our career, when we aren’t sure what our next step should be or are a bit lost - it means our lives could use some self-leadership.

Questions for exploration

• Do I see myself? Do I know myself? Could I answer questions like:

  • Why do I do the things I do?

  • What kind of support do I need most when I’m stressed?

  • What are my greatest strengths?

  • What keeps me from truly thriving?

• Do I see the problems?

  • Do I have clarity on the parts of my life that are in danger of derailing me from the things I want?

  • Do I have a strategy or approach to increase skills or resources so I can navigate through those problem areas of my life?

• Do I see potential?

  • What do I actually WANT from my life?

  • What kind of environment do I want to live in?

  • What kind of community do I want to surround myself with?

  • What kind of purpose or values matter most to me?

  • Where am I steering the ship of my life?

• Do I see priorities?

  • What is my next step?

  • What kinds of actions support the person I want to be?

  • What matters most to me?

  • What derails me from putting those priorities into action?

When we dig into these questions, we become the masters of our own lives. We take ownership and leadership of who we are and what we want to do in this world.

The bonus is, the greater skill we develop at self-leadership, the more likely we will find success if/when leading others is presented to us.

The way we do anything is the way we do everything.

Lead yourself before you can lead others.