Maybe I am on a simplicity kick. We tend to overcomplicate things. I know I am guilty at times.
Let’s be real simple.
- Life is what happens to you and comes at you – good and bad.
- You come at life with your attitude, strengths, weaknesses, gifts, and talents.
- In the middle is your leadership – shaped by your approach, mindset, actions, beliefs, thoughts, values, and words.
In the middle of life and you is your leadership.
Life changes.
You change.
You either evolve or get squeezed out.
You either act or get left behind.
In the middle of you and life is your leadership choice.
You determine what your purpose is.
You select a direction.
You engage. You collaborate.
You act with certain principles.
Or.
You decide to ignore a situation, letting it fester.
If you ignore, your inattention says something about your character and purpose.
If you don’t act, your inaction and unspoken words communicate as much as what is said.
How you respond to life forms your leadership ways. The lessons are:
- Define the content of your middle and then strengthen it. At your core is your leadership purpose, character, and beliefs. Strengthen your core to navigate life in a forthright, meaningful, responsible, giving, learning, purpose-filled way.
- Spend more time lifting yourself up and lifting up as many as possible along the way.
- Yes, you need to say no at times. Saying no is an action. Ignoring or sidestepping an issue, problem, or challenge shows a lack of character and purpose. Be positively active in your choices.
- Embrace your life – family, friends, work, community, and more – and do so with a sound leadership philosophy, life theme, and good sense of responsibility in using your inherent talents.
So, in the middle of you and life, how will you lead?
Make the complex simple is genius. I would rather say, inbetween life and you is self-leadership, but as an author on the topic I am biased 😉
Loved your post, Jon! Leading comes naturally to us when we have discovered our purpose, vision and values. With those in place, we can prepare for opportunities that come our way, even if we don’t see them coming.
I find that the best leadership joys happen when we least expect it.
Thanks for a simple and powerful post!
Thank you, Terri. Being open to the unexpected joys is vital to do. Keeps us centered and strong in what we do each day. Thanks! Jon
Jon, An empowering post. Indeed, sometimes it’s just important to slow down and recognize the choices as we’re making them.
Agreed. Slowing down to become more aware will strengthen our leadership core. Thanks, Karin!
Again….another great post Jon. : )
We sure do know how to trip over simplicity and straight into complexity at times, don’t we? (as humans)
Perhaps assumption is the mother/father of most complexity! i.e. the small fear turns into the mountain of a demon only to find out down the road ‘it’ had little to nothing at all to do with what you ‘thought’ it was…
Or when insecurity and fear is projected onto others…instead of owning the insecurity or fear, the ‘assumption’ is that the other person has the same fear or insecurity. And that may not be the case!
As for the either/or in your post, it’s the ignoring that tends to trip me up the most as a pet peeve. Especially when it comes to leadership. The fastest way for me to lose respect for a leader is when I see them start ignoring situations without honest communication. I try to keep expectations to a minimum yet it is still realistic to have some when in relation to specific roles and titles. i.e. I have an expectation that people in leadership positions should be people with integrity and have a track record of honesty. (not perfection….overall character) I have an expectation that leaders should have some practice in conflict resolution before they take on those roles. Reality? Many leaders will not live up to my expectations… (grins)
That said, the highlight of your post for me was what you said here:
‘You decide to ignore a situation, letting it fester.
If you ignore, your inattention says something about your character and purpose.
If you don’t act, your inaction and unspoken words communicate as much as what is said.’
What do people allow things to fester? Sometimes it is straight up fear. Sometimes it has more to do with wanting to make the other person or party suffer. Two very different reasons.
And yes, leaders who ignore says a great deal about character and purpose. Communication, even if/when we have to say no, is always the better way than to ignore people and play silent treatment games. Or ‘presuming’ people can read our minds and just ‘know’ what the problem is.
If someone had ‘good’ intentions and yet ‘fumbled the ball’ and didn’t know something was upsetting, they aren’t going to know the ‘why’ behind anything. Even if the person irritated or upset ‘thinks’ they SHOULD know.
Be clear. Communicate even if it’s a no. Provide as much information as possible so people have a good understanding of things. It’s far better then confusion or allowing hostile feelings to escalate.
Great post Jon.
Thanks for some wonderful insights (again), Samantha! I am not sure why we ignore things… most of us are guilty of this (I know I am). Part of the reason why may be that we don’t want confrontation. When we are are honest about situations, we don’t want to deal with the reactions or possible hurt feelings. We just move on and hope it will pass or get better.
Being honest in a respectful way may open up many more possibilities. We just need to take the risk. Easier said than done but it would be interesting to just live and lead this way and see what would happen over time.
Some things to consider…. Thanks for adding so much great insight to these articles. Makes it all worthwhile! Thank you. Jon
I love the simplicity and deep truth in this, Jon. How we show up, how we engage, how we face challenges and opportunities defines our leadership but it all happens in the course of living our life.
You remind me that working on the core of our leadership is like going to the gym to work on strengthening our core. Each one of us can benefit from doing the work to get more defined and stronger.
Another excellent piece, Jon!
Thanks, Alli. I agree on working on our core. We never know what life things will come at us so, with a strengthened leadership core, we increase our chances of navigating it well. Appreciate it!! Jon