Course 2, Discussion 2: Lead by example
Great Leadership, unsurprisingly, starts with yourself!
Practice what you preach. Lead by example. I am sure all of you heard these phrases. But why are they so iconic?
Because the journey starts with the first step and you are the person who is taking the initiative to lead -- Start a journey! So, you are the one who needs to take the first step before expecting others to do it.
To start with leading yourself, close your eyes and visualize two people: someone who inspired and encouraged you to be like them, and someone who discouraged you to be not like them.
Then, write down the good qualities of the person who inspired you as well as the qualities of the second person. You do not have to be specific with the details. Just a bulleted list.
Now, compare the list to yourself. Note the good qualities you have, the bad qualities you have, and give yourself a rating on a scale of 1-10. What we just did is identified your strengths and weaknesses and what you need in order to lead yourself. This allows you to create self-awareness.
Self-awareness is key to leading yourself in the right direction. But, leading yourself is not easy. Just being self-aware isn't enough. It's igniting the spark but not enough to catch the fire. To catch the fire, you need to be persistent with your practice, which is regular reflection. Be consistent with monitoring your efforts and holding yourself accountable.
You can't effectively lead others until you know how to lead yourself. That happens through Self-Observant Leadership: when you deeply understand your identity, compare it to your reputation (how others experience you) and then make meaning of the observations, and choose to adapt.
Exercise:
✒️ What did you learn about yourself through the given exercise?
✒️ Respond to one of your peers in this thread
❗After fulfilling the requirements of this post, please check out the next post here!
🔉This post is brought to you by the Leadership Development Program, find information on it here tinyurl.com/AcademyLDP
Thanks @Hope for that insightful exercise
After taking that chance of sitting with my self thinking about someone who can inspires, encourages me, and who's discourages me, don't like about
Found that most of what i really admires are the ones that i already try to live by (like kindness, honesty and patience)
Thats also showed me that i maybe harder on myself than i would ever be on someone else, putting my own needs last, can be very self critical
@6Dreamwish9 Thank you for sharing this! It seems like you found this helpful too. And being too hard on yourself,more than you would ever be on someone else,is a big discovery. Being very self-critical can be heavy. I admire how you were able to notice that,It can take a lot of effort!
Have an awesome journey,goodluck with your LDP 🍀
Thanks much @Ednamius! That really means a lot. Noticing it was the first step, and now I'm trying to be kinder to myself.
Wishing you all the best with your LDP too! 🍀
@6Dreamwish9 Of course,i'm glad you appreciated this! Also,I love how we are told to reply our peers in the comments of this course. I end up seeing you and some other leaders who are taking the LDP recently quite often,and It makes me recognise and know them a bit better. I remember you mentioned something about being too self critical in course 1 too. I hope you'll be kinder to yourself as well,you're an outstanding leader!
@Hope
Hi , what have learned about myself is that, am patient with people, I encourage people to grow, give directions, follow up can as well follow through.
My weakness is that, I expect much from my team which leads to depression if expectations not met
I would encourage my peers not to brag, not to talk about other people,
@Hope What did you learn about yourself through the given exercise?
I've learned a lot about myself thanks to it! By focusing on a person I admire,then one I don't like much,and comparing their qualities to mine,I found out how to improve as well. I realized I can be professional,but I don't follow-up as much as the leader I admire does. Then I do pay attention to details,but sometimes I end up being a bit late or slow. This was really helpful,thank you!
