Choosing personal leadership is a pivotal decision. Consider this. We lead because we want to. We either want to be a role-model or create an inviting environment for others to join and engage.
Personal leadership is not just a skill to possess, but a way of life. It becomes a lifestyle when we begin engaging in the practices it takes to perform with excellence as a personal leader.
How we live our lives, day in and day out, is how we will be measured. We will score higher on the rating card when our inside world (our thoughts, beliefs, and feelings) coincides with our outside world (the way we act, and the things we do and say).
Here are 9 of the practices of living the lifestyle of a personal leader:
- Being open and responsive. Being open and responsive to new ideas, willing and ready to change, willing to learn, being curious.
- Ready to think big about who we are and what we offer the world. To expand our perspective on ourselves, we must let go of any negative self-talk we have held onto, even if it has been with us for a long time. It means ignoring criticism from others and the fear that we may leave someone behind as we strive to become the magnificent humans we already are. It also means leaving behind the illusion that this is all too much to handle – fear of being the leader we dream of being would be overwhelming.
- No more lone rangers. Being willing to have supportive relationships and structures. Leaving behind the fear and belief that doing everything on our own is a recipe for being inefficient. When we ask for help and get support from others, it gives us more energy to do things that truly matter to us.
- Operate at the highest level of integrity. Having integrity is a choice. A choice to be consistent in doing what we say and do, following through on our actions and thoughts to completion. When we are out of integrity – it wears on our soul. When our integrity is intact, it is attractive to both ourselves (in the sense of how we feel) and to others. Integrity is inspiring.
- Ability to self-inspire and inspire others. Personal Leaders gather inspiration from their environment, and they share their meaningful dreams with the people around them.
- Being Courageous and Authentic: It takes both courage and authenticity to be a personal leader. Practicing the courage to go beyond the limits of our individual beliefs and thinking is the willingness to be open to other perspectives and ideals. To expand our courage and authenticity, we need to practice sharing our thoughts and feelings harmoniously with others.
- Being responsive to our mind–body awareness. Knowing how we feel and think about something is a key practice in personal leadership development. Practicing feeling things fully and learning to recognize signals from our bodies are practices that can benefit an individual tremendously. For example, developing intuition or the ability to learn from our emotions.
- Telling the Truth. Telling the truth is one of those things we wish everyone else did and yearn for. It can often seem like a hard hill to climb. Telling the truth may mean sharing our thoughts and feelings, or it could mean being vulnerable or risk having someone be emotional around us.
- Having full self-expression of our personal values. Our personal values – those things that are most important to us – is an individual thing. Some values we learn from our environment (like from our families) and some we come to appreciate through our own life experiences. A personal leader should share their values with others and demonstrate them in their actions.
