Do you lead from a position of passion or control?  I believe anyone can be taught leadership if their passions are triggered and ignited.  Once people discover their passions, causes, what’s truly important to them and their well-being and sustainability, (professional, personal, whatever), they will usually step up to the plate.  If you help them realize what their lives will look like when they do step up, leadership emerges, is fueled and burns brightly.

 

One doesn’t learn leadership from a text-book.  They can learn it when they pull in the context of their lives look at how it impacted them and those around them and draw the parallels.

 

Learning and practicing leadership doesn’t necessarily mean automatic success.  We have to recognize the differences there.  In learning to lead, even though you might fail now and then, getting up, dusting ourselves off and trying again, is one of the characteristics of a courageous leader.  Models and studies track trends.  What if we studied behaviours and triggers within various contexts around leadership rather than models and organizations?  That would give us a much better indication of what works and why in our own worlds.  We all know that what works for one organization might not necessarily work for another.

 

Reflection:

 

Take a moment to reflect on when something just clicked.  It worked for all reasons and for no specific reason but what you remember most is the energy and enthusiasm and joy of doing whatever it was at a specific time of your life.  Was it amazing because you learned something and grew exponentially?  Or was it amazing because everyone did their thing and collectively created something as close to magical as it gets?  Or was there some other reason why it was amazing?  What if you could recapture that feeling?  What about what you did could be replicated in some way in your day to day life / work?

 

Perspective Check:

 

Are you telling yourself right now that it’s not possible to recapture that time in your life?  Are you talking yourself into the why not rather than asking yourself “Why not?”  Amazing where the mind will take you….up or down.  Your choice.

 

So What Can You Do?

 

See what you can change.  Who do you need to connect with?  Are you wasting time with people who suck you dry of energy or who ignite a fire underneath you?  These choices will make all the difference in the world.

 

Web Stuff

 

For those of you who want to start a Blog, I recommend http://wordpress.org/ .  It’s super easy to use, free (and as they say, priceless at the same time) and gives you a web presence in no time at all.  It’s also available in French, can be private or public, or by invitation only and is a great vehicle to get the word out, share personal experiences with colleagues, family and friends and become a portal for your memories and pictures.

 

As Always:

Please feel free to share your comments, insights and perhaps a subject or two you’d like to open for discussion and we’ll look at it for a future newsletter or blog post. Our blog can be found at http://betterperspective.blogspot.com   

 

To sign up for our Self-Coaching program It’s All About You…and Others, visit here:  http://www.itsallaboutyouandothers.com/intro.htm

With deepest respect,

 

Donna Karlin

Founder and Principal

A Better Perspective

http://www.abetterperspective.com

ISSN 1913-6307