Emotions Are Important
September 30, 2022
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Why Leadership is Important
Leadership is important because it can provide you with a more fulfilling, meaningful, and impactful life and career. For organizations, effective leadership is directly correlated to improved business performance. We all can improve our leadership whether we are a student, entry-level worker, or CEO.
The best leaders seem to know how to respond to given situations no matter the challenge while bringing out the best in people. So, what is leadership and why is it so important? This article will share the importance of leadership, how it can improve your life, career or organization, and why it should be a priority in your personal and professional growth.
What is Leadership?
There always seem to be a variety of responses to this question, “what is leadership?” I have heard several different interpretations of leadership when I speak with people around the world. Many believe that leaders are those who are in power such as a government or military officials or a high-ranking executive in an organization. Some believe that leaders have a commanding personality or presence with a knack for getting others to think like them or do things they want them to do. Others believe that leaders are the most intelligent, best educated, or most vocal people in the room.
I do not agree with these interpretations. My definition of leadership is simple. It’s the ability to get over oneself to do something greater than oneself.
As humans, we want our personal and professional lives to mean something. We have a natural need to contribute and make a difference. When done well, leadership brings out our most powerful self and offers a sense of accomplishment and joy even during difficult times. Therefore, expanding your leadership is one of the best ways to create more meaning and purpose in your life and career. This is what I want for you. This is what I want for the people in your organization and community.
Everyone can be a leader regardless of their position or circumstance. The reason is that leadership can be practiced from a variety of dimensions:
- We can lead from the front, creating a space of openness, safety, and support for others to fail, learn, grow, and lead.
- We can be servant leaders from behind, understanding and doing what is needed and having the courage to speak up when something needs to be said.
- We can be leaders from beside, creating synergies with others to accomplish something more significant than what we can create alone.
- We can be leaders from within, influencing and inspiring the people we encounter by living our lives with openheartedness, integrity, and joy.
- We can also be leaders in connection with the world around us by being attuned to ourselves and what’s around us by being open and trusting, availing ourselves to our imagination and intuition, and having the courage to act on what our instincts tell us to do.
I do not agree with these interpretations. My definition of leadership is simple. It’s the ability to get over oneself to do something greater than oneself.
As humans, we want our personal and professional lives to mean something. We have a natural need to contribute and make a difference. When done well, leadership brings out our most powerful self and offers a sense of accomplishment and joy even during difficult times. Therefore, expanding your leadership is one of the best ways to create more meaning and purpose in your life and career. This is what I want for you. This is what I want for the people in your organization and community.
Everyone can be a leader regardless of their position or circumstance. The reason is that leadership can be practiced from a variety of dimensions:
- We can lead from the front, creating a space of openness, safety, and support for others to fail, learn, grow, and lead.
- We can be servant leaders from behind, understanding and doing what is needed and having the courage to speak up when something needs to be said.
- We can be leaders from beside, creating synergies with others to accomplish something more significant than what we can create alone.
- We can be leaders from within, influencing and inspiring the people we encounter by living our lives with openheartedness, integrity, and joy.
- We can also be leaders in connection with the world around us by being attuned to ourselves and what’s around us by being open and trusting, availing ourselves to our imagination and intuition, and having the courage to act on what our instincts tell us to do.
Why Leadership is Important
Great leaders are flexible and have the knack for knowing how to respond to any given situations. They are masters at incorporating the dimensions of leading from in front, behind, beside, and within while being connected with themselves and the world around them.
The world is changing at an increasingly rapid pace and it is difficult for most of us to keep up. Great leaders not only match this pace, they have the capacity to find opportunities in the chaos. How do they do this?
Like the favorite apps on our computers and smart phones, our leadership runs off a supporting operating software system. For humans, this operating software is our consciousness which is the awareness of ourselves, our environments, and our interactions with what surrounds us. As we upgrade our consciousness, we increase our leadership capacity to respond to greater complexity and faster change with ease, effectiveness, and purpose. If we do this, we will be more empowered to lead change rather than react to it. To me, this is what leadership is about. It’s foundational for building more meaning and purpose in our lives and more effective workforces in our organizations.
Great leaders are flexible and have the knack for knowing how to respond to any given situations. They are masters at incorporating the dimensions of leading from in front, behind, beside, and within while being connected with themselves and the world around them.
The world is changing at an increasingly rapid pace and it is difficult for most of us to keep up. Great leaders not only match this pace, they have the capacity to find opportunities in the chaos. How do they do this?
Like the favorite apps on our computers and smart phones, our leadership runs off a supporting operating software system. For humans, this operating software is our consciousness which is the awareness of ourselves, our environments, and our interactions with what surrounds us. As we upgrade our consciousness, we increase our leadership capacity to respond to greater complexity and faster change with ease, effectiveness, and purpose. If we do this, we will be more empowered to lead change rather than react to it. To me, this is what leadership is about. It’s foundational for building more meaning and purpose in our lives and more effective workforces in our organizations.
How to Improve Leadership Skills
You may think that your leadership growth is an intellectual exercise gained by reading books, attending training, or adding a few new competencies to your skillset. Perhaps you believe that your leadership skills can grow through willpower–those commitments we make to ourselves to work harder, be more disciplined, be tougher, and contain those feelings that we perceive as weak. Or, maybe you think you can improve your leadership skills by being more likable or charismatic to people and doing things that will garner recognition from others. None of these solutions will assist you in achieving the sustainable results that you are seeking.
The reason for this is that leadership comes from within:
- Leadership is the richness that exists inside you–it comes from your essence, learning about how you think, feel, respond, and recover from the complexities that continuously occur in our lives.
- It is about knowing yourself, learning about your innate gifts that are uniquely yours and how to use them to do good and help others.
- Leadership is being vulnerable with your weaknesses–understanding and accepting them and growing beyond them.
- It is about learning how to connect the real inner you with the outside–how to relate with people and the energy that surrounds you.
- Leadership is the empowerment of love and the dissipation of fear that exists in each of us.
The OrgForce leadership development model does not have an academic orientation, and we do not attempt to download information for your consumption. Instead, we focus on growing your conscious leadership which we believe will have a lasting impact on your personal and professional lives. We base our programs on neuroscience research and the core commitments that we think you should incorporate into your leadership to bring out your most powerful self.
The OrgForce leadership development model focuses on growing your conscious leadership which we believe will have a lasting impact on your personal and professional lives.
In essence, we help you get out of your analytical heads and tap into the intelligence that exists in mind, heart, and soul. We accomplish this by creating experiential learning experiences through one-on-one coaching, training, assessments, and program design.
At OrgForce, we believe that your leadership journey should be an enjoyable process, so we tailor programs that make it a fun and gratifying experience.
You may think that your leadership growth is an intellectual exercise gained by reading books, attending training, or adding a few new competencies to your skillset. Perhaps you believe that your leadership skills can grow through willpower–those commitments we make to ourselves to work harder, be more disciplined, be tougher, and contain those feelings that we perceive as weak. Or, maybe you think you can improve your leadership skills by being more likable or charismatic to people and doing things that will garner recognition from others. None of these solutions will assist you in achieving the sustainable results that you are seeking.
The reason for this is that leadership comes from within:
- Leadership is the richness that exists inside you–it comes from your essence, learning about how you think, feel, respond, and recover from the complexities that continuously occur in our lives.
- It is about knowing yourself, learning about your innate gifts that are uniquely yours and how to use them to do good and help others.
- Leadership is being vulnerable with your weaknesses–understanding and accepting them and growing beyond them.
- It is about learning how to connect the real inner you with the outside–how to relate with people and the energy that surrounds you.
- Leadership is the empowerment of love and the dissipation of fear that exists in each of us.
The OrgForce leadership development model does not have an academic orientation, and we do not attempt to download information for your consumption. Instead, we focus on growing your conscious leadership which we believe will have a lasting impact on your personal and professional lives. We base our programs on neuroscience research and the core commitments that we think you should incorporate into your leadership to bring out your most powerful self.
The OrgForce leadership development model focuses on growing your conscious leadership which we believe will have a lasting impact on your personal and professional lives.
In essence, we help you get out of your analytical heads and tap into the intelligence that exists in mind, heart, and soul. We accomplish this by creating experiential learning experiences through one-on-one coaching, training, assessments, and program design.
At OrgForce, we believe that your leadership journey should be an enjoyable process, so we tailor programs that make it a fun and gratifying experience.
Need to Sharpen Your Leadership Skills? We Can Help!
At OrgForce Consulting, we firmly believe that transformational change is possible for everyone. That’s why we offer various organizational change management and leadership coaching services to assist leaders and their organizations. We personalized all our programs to meet the unique needs of each client.
Your leadership transformation starts with a conversation. Contact us at (301) 633-1684 or dmiller@org-force.com for a free 45-minute leadership coaching session.
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