Читать книгу Inspirational Presence - Jeff Evans - Страница 17

In order to lead others, you must first lead yourself. More than anything else, this should become a practice throughout your life. A nice way to look at this is through the idea that you already have a leadership practice. We all do. The question is whether or not you know it and whether you put conscious energy toward how you engage that practice.

I use the word practice here to connote something that you regularly do and how you approach the world. Every thought and every action constitutes the whole of how you are defined as a leader. Deeply imbedded in this practice are the words you use, your self-talk, and your habitual responses to the world. The basic difference between a habit and a practice is mindfulness. Once you become mindful of how you talk to yourself, you can understand that those words and emotions are a rehearsal for how you will talk to others. Once you become mindful of the habitual stories you tell yourself about the world (your personal mythology), you become mindful of how those stories become a guide for your interactions and the explanations you place on the world.

You can lead by claiming the inherent power of these natural dynamics and using them for positive purpose. It simply requires noticing what is going through your mind and deciding whether that is the most appropriate view of the world at the time. You decide whether your behaviors match the current situation. You determine the energy that you want to put into the world. In every given moment, you have the option of seeing the world through a loving and trusting lens or through one of fear and doubt. In every action you take, you have the choice of creating positive and creative situations or negative and destructive ones.

In order to frame this, there are certain areas where you can focus your attention to begin this practice. Each has a particular purpose in creating a solid and dynamic leader, and each affords a particular area of personal power. We will take these separately.