Lead Self to Serve Others
Leadership, Leadership & Leadership.
It is the buzz word we hear every moment. Leaders are nominated for capacity building and self-discovery workshops, managers are going for leadership trainings, Teams are going for the emerging leaders’ sessions, and kids are going for the Leadership Boot camps! Looks like, in no time we will have copious supply of leaders in this world. A great amount of time, money and energy have been spent on empowering individuals to learn leadership skills. Nevertheless, the world, organizations, associations and political parties keep struggling to find “The Leader” who can serve them with – enthusiasm and passion and help – elevate their level of excellence.
In my last 30 years of experience with people, I have observed that everybody wants to lead others, but there are only a handful who are leading themselves. Imagine, in case of lack of oxygen in a flight, the flight attendant starts instructing people to wear the oxygen without wearing one. The simple principle to be a successful leader is to Lead Self if you want to Serve Others. A simple but a profound reality. How do we go about it? As they say, everything starts from the top, with human also everything starts from the top, – our mind. The simple equation of leading self is
Thoughts = Words = Actions = Followers
Our thoughts are the foundation of this Journey of Self Leadership. They are the product of our beliefs that we have ingrained from our childhood, however, if we want to challenge those beliefs, we can do that and alter our thoughts one step at a time. I recently got an opportunity to hear Eric Weihenmayer, an American athlete who climbed 7 highest peaks of the world and kayak down the great canyon. He lost his eyesight when he was of 14 years, but his vision and belief was intact. He led himself by challenging his belief system. He did that by taking control of his thoughts. He converted his disability to his advantage and empowered himself to do that seems impossible for a blind man.
I believe, there are three key principles to Lead Self!
1) Managing your State of Mind: Our state of mind usually gets effected with state of affairs. Anything that happens in the outer world creates ripples in our mind and because of that, we experience emotions of anger, happiness, frustration, pain, etc. Even a simple action of our teammates or a driver on the road has the power to disturb our state of mind. There is no magic wand that will help you manage your state of mind, it’s only “YOU” who will make it happen. As soon as you feel that you are experiencing negative emotions, tap your mind and move away or just say “nobody else in this world can control my state of mind” – I will control it and nothing in the outside world can disturb my peace – Some deliberate attempt, in the beginning, will convert into patterns and those patterns will become part of your life. It’s a matter of creating self-awareness and catch the monkey (your mind) as soon it becomes naughty. Awareness give you power to make right choices and when you get power to choose, you create stunning results.
2) Using Empowering Language: What kind of words we are using in our daily conversations. I am sick or I am powerful. I am frustrated or I am rocking. I am peaceful or I am depressed. These words are the output of our state of mind. Watch every word that comes after “I AM”. Resolve today that it will be only positive & transformational words. When we say in the morning “I am late” – you are creating vibrations that will take your power away and you will get late every day. Even when you are late you change your words to “I am fine, I will reach on time” – Just see what happens. You will feel empowered by self. Slowly but soon you will start reaching on time. Deliberate use of positive words can craft beautiful days and eventually beautiful life for you.
3) Be an Actionist: Do your actions support your thoughts and words? People watch you 24×7! Your kids watch you; your parents watch you; your subordinates watch you and of course, your superiors watch you! Commit to your words and perform at a higher level. Erik Weihenmayer not only challenged his beliefs by changing his thoughts but took actions to train him by setting audacious goals and then acted upon them on daily basis. Small seemingly insignificant looking actions have power to change the course of your life. Courage to take act is important but tenacity is the key for unexpected results. Don’t wait to be perfect, take actions and you will become perfect in the process.
To deliver a boffo performance on the stage of the world, you must lead yourself with immense passion and sincerity. The foundation of this performance is in-built into these three magical keys. If you miss one key, you are disempowering yourself to be a leader. On the other hand, if these three keys are aligned, you will start drawing your power from people as they want to be like you.
Before you lead and serve the world, Go and lead yourself! Once you lead yourself, you don’t have to lead others, as others will follow you because they love to follow a leader, whose thoughts, words and actions are aligned and who walks the talk!
