Welcome to our October edition of The Leader’s Coach. For those of you who have recently subscribed, this monthly newsletter is intended to share with you, leaders and managers, some of the common challenges my clients face from time to time together with practical solutions, based on sound theory, that you can easily implement should you be seeing or experiencing the same challenges in your environment.
As you are no doubt aware, there are thousands of books on leadership out there. Whilst I have read a number of them, I cannot profess to even have touched the tip of the iceberg. I do have my favourites but the one that has stood out for me for the last twelve years or so is a short 167-page booklet written by Steve Radcliffe and entitled, Leadership Plain and Simple – and it lives up to its title. Oliver Wendell Holmes CJ said somewhere in the 1920’s: “I don’t give a jot for simplicity this side of complexity; but I will give anything for simplicity on the other side” – and that’s exactly what Radcliffe provides.
One of the things that Radcliffe talks about is the concept of being at our best more of the time. He says: “I believe that the centre of this ‘leadership stuff’ is you being At Your Best, more of the time. And in turn helping others be the same.” Simple, isn’t it! When we are at our best more of the time, others are likely to follow suit.
At the heart of this is the need to be self-aware in the moment, to be able under pressure to step back in the moment and make the decision not to give ourselves permission to respond as our lesser selves but as our better selves. Easier said than done, I know! Nevertheless, it’s worth working at.
How? Well, check out this lovely Cherokee folktale which :
We can all be at our best more of the time if we consciously and consistently feed our good wolf. It’s a lifelong battle but it’s a battle we can win.
So, my challenge to you this month is to consciously feed your good wolf – consciously be at your best in each moment. You’re human, though, so there will be times when your bad wolf gets the better of you. Don’t beat yourself up! Be non-judgmentally aware of having fed the bad wolf – and start feeding your good wolf again. After all its about being at your best more of the time!
Have fun! And please let me know how this challenge goes for you (here’s a link: lauron@lbcoaching.co.za) – and notice how it influences those around you.
Until next month
Take care
Lauron
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