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
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@Hope
This exercise is a powerful reminder of the importance of self-awareness in leadership. Reflecting on the qualities of people who inspired me, as well as those who didn’t, helped me recognize the traits I value and the behaviors I want to avoid.
Here's what I observed:
•Qualities of the Inspiring Person:
•Encouraging and positive
•Consistently led by example
•Patient and willing to listen
•Authentic and trustworthy
•Focused on growth, both personally and for others
Qualities of the Discouraging Person:
•Often negative or dismissive
•Lacked empathy
•Unreliable or inconsistent
•Criticized more than encouraged
•Focused more on their own image than on others
Self-Reflection:
After comparing these qualities to my own, I noted that I share some of the positive traits, such as a focus on growth, reliability, and patience. However, I also noticed areas to work on, particularly around being more consistent in my encouragement and listening skills.
Self-Assessment:
On a scale of 1-10, I’d rate myself around a 7. I feel I have a good foundation but know I need to improve, especially in consistently practicing the qualities I admire.
Key Takeaways:
1. Self-Awareness: This exercise has highlighted the importance of knowing my strengths and weaknesses, which is essential for leading myself.
2. Consistency and Accountability: Regularly reflecting on these qualities can help me stay on track and develop the traits that make an effective leader.
3. Adapting to Growth: Self-Observant Leadership means not only recognizing these traits but actively working to embody them.
This was a great start to a journey of self-leadership, emphasizing the need for regular reflection and a commitment to personal growth. Leading others begins with leading myself.
@Moonstar2345
You did well on this. I see and appreciate your effort 💜
Opes! I posted under the wrong account.
I often overthink simple tasks and underestimate the power of letting go and trusting the process. It reminded me that stepping back to observe can be as powerful as taking action.
@JustLikeMellie
This really resonates with me, I feel that I'm quite similar so thank you. Your comment has given me more to consider and I hope that this is something that I can improve upon in future. Keep up the good work!
Learned what I need to work on within myself and how to improve certain parts that are lacking; i.e., speaking up when needed or when I might have something valuable to mention.
@EventHorizons
Ohh, yes, this is such a good one! It can be so hard to advocate for ourselves, I can really relate to this. I hope you learn some new techniques for speaking up when it might feel difficult because your voice and perspective are unique & important and deserve to be considered & heard!
From this exercise I learned the importance of being self aware - conscious of how you are leading and what do you want to achieve✨
@ElenaDeMonaco
Yes, you're so right, I do believe that being self aware is the foundation to any kind of growth in life, especially as we develop our leadership styles :)
✒️ What did you learn about yourself through the given exercise?
Through this exercise I discovered that I'm more like those I admire than I had thought. It is important to keep these qualities in mind and use them constantly to reflect on where I am in the moment and where I want to be. Be effectively leading myself and becoming an example, I can more effectively lead a team of people towards a shared goal.
@KellyBx
It is such an encouraging and validating experience to be able to notice how similar we are to the people who we admire! So glad you had this realization during this exercise :)
@Hope
I am work very well alone and need little guidance or babysitting. Despite this I have no problem asking for help. I can sometimes get hung up on sticking to the rules a little too rigidly.
@VioletteB82
I think that being an independent person while still balancing this trait with the ability to ask for help when needed is such a great combination of strengths. A lot of times, independent people find it difficult to ask others for help, even though we all need help sometimes :)
✒️ What did you learn about yourself through the given exercise?
From doing this exercise, I learned that one of my strengths that mirrors my inspirational person's (a mentor of mine) is setting boundaries. An example of this that came to mind was when I had asked my mentor if I could bring a new friend with me to dinner at her home. She expressed interest & desire for meeting the people in my life, however placed a boundary protecting her time, energy & space by saying they would be willing to meet the friend once I had known them for longer. She described the reason for this boundary being that she wanted to protect her time & energy and save it for the people close to her. (My mentor is the founder of a nonprofit and a very busy woman). I really appreciate her modeling this form of setting boundaries for me and this example has stuck with me to this day.
When looking at the discouraging example in my life, the trait I saw most in myself from that list is avoiding conflict. I know this is something I need to work on- my family's style of solving conflict is by just avoiding it & sweeping it under the rug (and so I believe I got this trait from them). I think taking some courses on conflict solving might be helpful for me to address this area for improvement.
@Hope
✒️ What did you learn about yourself through the given exercise?
Something that I learned about myself through the given exercise is that when I am a leader, I want to make sure that I am paying attention to detail on everything going on surrounding not only my team but also any upcoming projects that are occurring. This allows me to support my team in the best possible way to make sure that everyone is heard and seen.
@charmingPeace6655
I agree, but often times not everyone is vocal about their issues and they sort of ignore their problems as projects get underway.
@charmingPeace6655
Your focus on persistence is inspiring. Staying consistent truly helps in self-leadership. Great job—keep going!
@Hope
This exercise taught me that leadership is not only about setting an example or being a good strong leader as I understand now I have to get better at understanding my team better to make them more productive.