During the Holidays, Take Time to Pause and Reflect

As the holidays and year end approach, it’s a great opportunity to carve out some time to reflect on our lives, our past year, and the year ahead of us. Here are some tips for doing so.

1.          Ask yourself these questions:

How many lives did you make a difference in this year?

What will you keep doing, stop doing and start doing?

Where is your passion, and how is it reflected in the work you do?

2.         To help you find your passion, reflect on:

What is it about your current role that excites you? 

Where in what you do are you able to feel ‘in the flow’?

Whom do you love working with and why?

How do you use your gifts to bring WHO you are to WHAT you do?

3.          Create daily reminders:

Put 2 sticky notes on your bathroom mirror so that you see them first thing each morning. On one note write: “Grow in one way each day” and on the other sticky note write: “Make a difference in one person’s life today.”

These notes will remind you to do these 2 simple things every day:  (1) Read something new or learn how to do something you didn’t know yesterday. This could be reading an online article, searching online for information about a topic of interest, or asking someone to show you how to do something rather than doing it for you. (2) Do something that will help make someone else’s world easier.  This could be as simple as holding a door for them, or helping them load groceries into their car.  I’m talking easy here.

4.          Repack your life

During this time invite yourself to “repack” your life.  This means unpacking and examining all the things you have been carrying around – material things, feelings, relationships, attitudes, experiences, habits, beliefs, etc. Decide what you want to LOSE, and what you want to TAKE with you. Start by creating your vision for your life.  In this vision do you have outer happiness and inner fulfillment?  If so, where are you? What do you have with you? What is making you happy and fulfilled? Let your vision guide you in what you need to take with you going forward and what to leave behind. Decide what you will leave behind and then repack those things that are meaningful and enrich you at the core level.

Decisions are Powerful.  Make the decision to be happy and fulfilled, and to make this world a better place by growing just a little each day, making a difference in at least one person’s life each day, and packing appropriately to live a life of happiness and joy in 2016.

Happy Holidays, and all the best for the New Year!

Rebecca

"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."

- Dr. Wayne Dyer, 1940-2015

6 Ways to Become an Authentic Leader

Think back for a minute about the best leader you ever had. What was it that made them memorable? How did they differ from leaders you had before, or from those you’ve had since? If someone immediately comes to mind, chances are it’s because they were an authentic leader.

“Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart and feet – thinking, saying, feeling and doing the same thing – consistently. This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust.” – Dr. Lance Secretan

Too often people are thrust into a leadership role by virtue of their tenure or performance and are not given the benefit of learning how they, as a leader, can be most effective. In the absence of learning how they can apply their true selves to the role, they become the leader they’ve observed in others (effective or not) or that they think they should be.

So how do you become an authentic leader? Here are 6 tips.

Know yourself. Develop a deep understanding of your strengths and weaknesses, how you lead, and how you respond to situations and people around you. Know your communication style so you can adapt it as needed to better connect with others. Where are you most comfortable in the four dimensions of leadership – leading with vision, leading to deliver, leading with drive or leading through people?

Know your people. Take the time to learn their strengths and development areas. Listen empathically to their ideas, concerns, feedback. How do they like to be rewarded? What are their personal and career goals? Find out their communication style preferences.

Be honest. Always. Tell the truth, even when you’d rather not. Allow yourself to be vulnerable – share mistakes and what you learned from them. Give honest, productive feedback on a regular basis. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.

Develop a shared vision. Employees are more likely to help with the journey if they were involved in selecting the destination. Seek out their input.

Walk the talk. Do what you say you’re going to do. Be available and approachable and encourage open discussion to deal with differences and share ideas. Be fair. Listen.

“Check in” daily. What are the 3 - 5 words that best describe the qualities you use as a leader and as the leader you want to be? Several times a day, every day, stop and ask yourself if your behaviors, actions and decisions are congruent with those words.

The more authentic you are as a leader, the more influence and trust you will have with your people, and the greater impact you will have in your organization.

Lead on,

Rebecca