Everyday we are inundated with news reports that demonstrate the “VUCA” environment that best describes our global community.
The “Volatility, Uncertainly, Complexity and Ambiguity” of our world requires us to develop a very disciplined and deliberate filter so that we lessen the impact the 24-hour news cycle has on our emotional well being.
Through a friends post on a social media outlet, I happen to come across this Kindness Calendar which simply and powerfully outlines one kind act a day we can choose to demonstrate during the month of December. I recognize that kindness and empathy are traits we should all demonstrate on an ongoing basis, but I thought the deliberate and disciplined approach of purposefully practicing one act of kindness or gratitude a day was a brilliant way to start the month of December and a brilliant way to conclude 2018.
Of course you can customize your own daily habit or task to practice kindness with yourself and your community, but for a quick and easy-to-use resource with great ideas, check out this Kindness Calendar from Action For Happiness and get ready to spread kindness and gratitude around this season.
And I challenge you to make December a month of kindness and to carry it forward into 2019!
How many times have you felt like a fraud at work…or in life?
It is called Imposter Syndrome and it is more common that many would think.
Congratulations!
It is not a sign of weakness…but actually one of strength. In fact, many experts say it is what drives already successful people to grown even more and achieve even more success.
If you have ever felt like you are a “fraud”, and that people are going to find out one day that you really don’t have an idea of what you’re doing…then you are in great company. Academy-award winning actor Tom Hanks, Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, tennis star Serena Williams and Starbucks founder Howard Schultz are just some of the very successful and talented leaders who have experienced Imposter Syndrome.
While some people, including perhaps yourself, may want you to conquer or overcome your feeling of being a fraud…I coach leaders to pivot and embrace that inner imposter for even more success.
This is why I am excited to announce my portfolio of new speaking and learning topics that focus on Imposter Syndrome. To learn more about these offerings and to contact me for more information, click on my “Imposter” one-sheet:
Remember the next time you feel like a fraud…congratulate yourself. It means you are stepping out of your comfort zone and continuing to grow as a leader.
And check out my leadership coaching workbook, Find Your VOICE as a Leader for more tips and techniques to create a confident and convincing leadership brand.
What do you stand for? What is important to you? What are your values?
“When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.”
Roy E. Disney
Identifying Your Values Demonstrates Your Leadership Brand
Brand matters. Creating your confident leadership voice is your key to being a successful leader. You make decisions based on your value system…it is the internal-GPS, (your Global Positioning System), for the roadmap of your leadership journey. From the clients you engage with, to the team members that you hire, to the relationships with your family and friends, your values are reflected in every facet of your leadership style. And your life.
By identifying and living your core values, you lay the foundation for a grounded and confident leadership approach. Your values encompass your passions, talents and strengths. By defining your values, you determine what matters most to you. And you can determine how your values align, (or not), with those of your community and your organization.
When we blend a leader’s deliberate leadership values into our coaching partnership, I am able to guide leaders into greater insight and awareness of what is important to them in their life, and, thus, how their values impact their overall leadership brand.
Identifying Your Values Builds a Foundation of Trust
Trust matters. In the past, many discussions that centered on leadership were focused on the leaders themselves: their personality traits, their motivation and how to coach and develop those team members with potential. Recently, this focus has shifted from the personality traits of a leader to their ability to inspire confidence and build a foundation of trust within their team.
As an executive coach who’s role is to help leaders find fulfillment in their role, I know that nothing builds trust more than a leader who lives by their values. Not everyone may agree with your beliefs or how you put them into practice, but you will garner trust and respect by leading via a consistent and core set of practices and values.
Your team will have a better appreciation for your decision-making process. They will understand how you make your decisions and how you communicate your thoughts, insights and feedback. Think of the leaders that you have had in your life. Those leaders who lived by an open set of values were consistent in the way that they managed and dealt with people and situations.
Identifying Your Values Develops Your Credibility
Credibility matters. Successful leaders that lead according to their values make an effort to open up and be genuine with their team. That is easier said than done. By letting your team know who you are and what you value, you can build and evolve relationships built on trust and credibility. Share your values with your team. Inform them how your values will impact the decisions you make. Give brief, concrete examples of how your values have guided you in the past, and share your expectations of the team’s performance going forward. Ask them what they value in their life and how
Once you begin sharing what is important to you, you begin to create an environment of engagement and respect. You do not need to share every detail of your life, but by communicating what is significant to you and what you expect of each other, you enable your team to understand your motivation and eliminate mis-interpretations. This is not about building a team based on “friendships”, it is about building a team of mutual trust, appreciation and credibility.
Identifying Your Values Provides You with Direction & Boundaries
Boundaries matter. By discovering and identifying your values, you author your personal framework by which you make decisions. In today’s social and digital marketplace, where so many things compete for your attention, being able to prioritize what is important for you to spend your time on is critical. Discovering your values, what is really important to you, enables you to re-set your leadership brand with a clear purpose so that you make decisions to prioritize and focus on the issues that matter most.
Identifying Your Values Reveals What You Believe In
Beliefs matter. Self-discovery is an important aspect of effective leadership. A leader without an identified set of values will be directionless and thus, ineffective. Like a rudder-less ship…just drifting at sea. By defining your values, you allow your team members, your clients—and more importantly, you—to know what you stand for. This enables you to lead from a foundation comprised of reliability, consistency and accountability.
While we live in a society that makes it tempting to pretend to be someone you are not, this will prevent you from gaining the trust of your team, your organization and your clients. Your values set you apart from other leaders. Your values are what make you unique. Discover them. Own them. Lead with them.
“I had chosen to use my work as a reflection of my values.”
Sidney Poitier
Finding your VOICE as a leader enables you to build a trusting and confident leadership brand by:
Discovering your critical leadership Values…
Creating a compelling vision to obtain the Outcomes you want…
Influencing your relationships with trust and credibility…
Making decisions that reveal your Courage and confidence to take a stand…
&
Communicating your overall Expression for lasting impact.
As an Executive Coach and the author of the award-winning leadership book, “Find Your VOICE as a Leader”, Paul partners with leaders and teams, enabling them to find their unique “voice” and create successful outcomes for themselves and their organizations. He has a successful track record in building leadership bench-strength within all types of organization, from Fortune 100 firms to start-up companies to non-profit organizations.
While my handmade “stage shoes” from Ecuador are indeed colorful, you need more than vibrant clothing to stand-out as a successful leader in our age of constant disruption. You need to author a distinct and personal leadership brand by taking deliberate and purposeful steps that align to your future vision and desired legacy.
When I introduce myself as an executive coach, I often hear the response: “I need a coach” or “I want a coach” based on what has happened to them in the past…i.e. their past behaviors or feedback they have received.
But coaching is not a therapy session nor should it be focused on our past. The past cannot be changed. Our current and future hold all of our leadership potential. And enrolling in a one-on-one executive coaching partnership can unleash your potential via a disciplined and accountable process.
At the recent DoGood Leadership Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, one of our key sponsors, Leaderonomics, had the chance to catch a few moments with me to talk about my philosophy around coaching.Coaching is all about what your current environment is like, your current landscape, and how you can use a coaching partnership to transition into a successful future vision of who you want to be.
Coaching focuses on product development, it is just that the special product we are focused on is you.
It is important to always remember when it comes to coaching goals and outcomes─ it is not about telling someone what to do, but it is about asking the right questions to obtain the right outcomes to align with their goals and vision.
Thus, coaching is all about moving forward from your current environment into the future.
So what are you waiting for…let’s get moving!
Watch my short ‘n sweet “Leadership Nugget” below and then contact me info on my disruptive leadership coaching programs for individuals and teams:
Create an Organizational Culture that Thrives in our Age of Disruption!
As a leader, how is today’s global disruptive environment keeping you awake at night? How do you handle market curve balls that come out of nowhere? How do you plan for the future when your product, service or supply chain is obsolete today? How do you distribute resources, train, and develop people for jobs we can’t even imagine yet?
Our modern global economy can be unpredictable, chaotic, messy and all around hectic. Thus, it is the perfect environment for leaders and teams to harness their strengths, confidence and gifts to not only survive…but to thrive in this age of disruption!
During this 1-day interactive workshop, leaders will engage with two customized self-assessment tools and a variety of scenario-based learning activities so that they quickly acquire the skills to:
understand the key differences between innovation and disruption
integrate the two basic mindsets that shape our lives: Fixed and Growth
build a purposeful and deliberate leadership brand using the proven V-O-I-C-E coaching model
learn and apply the 5 critical leadership skillsto create an organizational culture that thrives within a disruptive environment
Length: 6 Hours Learning Modality: In-person
Workbook: Each participant will receive a personally signed copy of Paul’s award-winning leadership coaching book: “Find Your VOICE as a Leader”.
If you would like to offer this practical and powerful course to your leaders and teams, please contact me at: paul@paulnlarsen.com
About Paul:
The author of the award-winning coaching book, “Find Your VOICE as a Leader”, Paul N Larsen, MA, CPPC, is a Certified Professional Performance Coach, a certified Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coach and an accomplished leadership facilitator and speaker. He has over 30 years of business experience with senior-level management responsibilities within small and large companies, including heading human resources (CHRO) for a USD$3 billion organization.
Paul has a successful track record in building leadership bench strength within the global Fortune 100, start-up, and high-tech environments. Presently, he coaches leaders and teams at Twitter, SAP, Electronic Arts, Walmart, Workday and Cisco Systems.
