Chocolate, Rock-N-Roll & Leadership Awareness

In my experience, the words leadership and management are used interchangeably in the workplace. In the management and leadership classes I’ve taught over the years, we define those terms differently, while recognizing that leadership is a critical part of management.

Like Forrest Gump’s mama, I have always believed that life and leadership are like a box of chocolates. Defining leadership as a component of management was like saying cocoa is a component of chocolate. While cocoa is the critical component in making chocolate, there is a process in taking the cocoa through critical steps before the chocolate is produced.Such is true with leadership—critical steps for leadership development are necessary.

The first steps begin with awareness.Need another rockin’ example? Click here:We tell the truth to ourselves when we acknowledge our own imperfections. In one of my favorite leadership books, “Leading with Soul”, the authors Boleman and Deal stated, “To deny imperfections is to deny our humanity and to become disconnected from our soul.”Accepting our imperfections and taking the introspective, reflective journey, we travel to our core and find our authentic leader within.Try these 3 simple steps to start your deep dive into self-awareness:

1. Keep a journal and start writing in it daily. When you make this part of your routine, you will find this time of reflection become a habit.

2. Set aside a small amount of time each day – just 10 minutes to be quiet. Unplug, turn off, or sit in your car if you need to. In this stillness, we find profound awareness.

3. When you notice an uneasiness like fear or worry and simply ask yourself, “Where is this coming from?” Once we learn how to acknowledge this feeling, we can choose to release it if it does not serve us.

I would love to hear from you. What do you suppose keeps us from our vulnerability and authenticity as leaders?

With love,

Maria

6 Ways To Shift Your Leadership Perspective

Are you ready to experience one of the most powerful leadership tools?  Perception shifting opens up your leadership understanding and builds leadership prowess.  When we add tools to our toolbox of skill sets, well let’s just say that perception shifting is plugging in and using a turbo charged tool.  As promised, here are some activities to help exercise your perception-shifting muscle:

• Find a photo from a magazine. Study the photo and tell a story about it. Make it as rich and deep as you can, developing the characters, setting, scene, and dialogue. Now look at the same photo and create a new story, from a different lenses or perspective. Again, develop all of the same elements for a rich, deep story. Practice this activity often to develop your ability to perception shift with ease.

• Another fun exercise in perception shifting are the images of the young lady – old lady or the candlesticks – faces. These images are found online and are fun easy activities to train your brain to look for more than one perspective.

• Recognize that your feelings are a good indicator of underlying beliefs and perceptions. If you are feeling worried, anxious, doubtful, or fearful, your emotions are indicating the existence of a belief that may no longer serve you. Reflect on the feeling and accompanying thought. Identify this perception and make the choice to shift your perception to one accompanied by positive feelings of excitement, joy, gratitude, and love. Remember, the ego looks to separate, divide, and is steeped in fear. Err on the side of love and you cannot go wrong.

• When you feel stuck and cannot quite figure out what is holding you back, sit in reflection and ask, What belief, or perception could be reinforcing my current state, creating this outcome? Remember to think of the iceberg analogy, only a small portion will be at the surface. You will need to dive deep to find the core, root cause of this reality.

• Another effective technique for uncovering perspectives that weigh you down is to ask why five times. This process allows you to dig deeper with each response to why. If you find you are getting somewhere, don’t stop at five!

• A fun activity to practice perception shifting is to think of a situation and look at it from other people’s perspectives. Pick three of four people you know and look at the situation from what you believe their perspectives may be. I remember several years ago on a Seinfeld episode, an event happened and the show depicted the event from the four different perspectives of Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer.

Remember that perspective shifting requires awareness, choice, and the willingness to be open to other possibilities.I would love to hear from you, what exercises do you use to shift your perspective?

With love,

Maria