5 Ways To Turn Yourself Into An Emotionally Strong Leader

Strong leaders constantly evaluate themselves, check their emotional status, practice self-discipline and maintain their cool no matter what…

Leaders cannot overcome hurdles, make tough decisions and eventually experience positive events if they are not emotionally strong.

Wondering how to become an emotionally strong leader?

5 Ways To Turn Yourself Into An Emotionally Strong Leader #emotionalintelligence #emotions #leadership #strengths #weaknesses #journeytoleadership journeytoleadershipblog.com

1. Understand that your emotions are useful

Your emotions are there to guide you through life and not superimpose over your life because life is more than your emotions. Of course, you have relationships you care about, a purpose in life, passions and goals.

Good or bad, positive or negative, your emotions are useful and shouldn’t control your life.

Being able to gain control over your emotions is all about recognizing which emotion you are dealing with, acquiring self-awareness, engaging in positive self-talk and forging positive habits.

2. Acknowledge that everybody has problems

Everybody has problems and is a part of life. You just have to face them sooner or later.

The truth is there isn’t a person in this world who is problem free. There are just some people who are able to handle them and others who aren’t.

Emotionally strong leaders are solution-oriented and understand that problems actually build character, experience, grit and stamina.

3. Learn from your failures

There is always a lesson that can be learnt from your failures.

That is why there is no need to dwell on the past, but mental muscles are built through adversity and more lessons are learnt from failures than from success.

4. Realize that your mind can adapt to just about anything

Whatever you are going through, however uncomfortable you may feel, emotionally strong leaders don’t run away from their problems.

After a while, you will grow, get out of your comfort zone and your mind will simply adjust to your circumstances.

Adaptable leaders know how to self-regulate, focus on the important things they can control and don’t focus on the drama.

5. Find your purpose

Your purpose is made of clear life goals that will motivate you, help you wake up in the morning and help you overcome adversity.

When emotionally strong leaders have found their purpose and their inner motivator, they are able to focus on the essentials, easily influence and motivate others.

Last Words Of Advice!

Give yourself the freedom to express your thoughts and emotions when you really want to.

Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!

Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.

Journey To Leadership is now hosting networking events…

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The Successful Introvert By Wendy Gelberg

Many introverts evolve in society feeling like something is wrong with them, like they don’t belong or like they are out of sync with society.

That is because we see people on TV acting out their emotions and interacting with other people.

Introverts Characteristics

Introverts live inwardly and are often engaged in internal activities.

They are uncomfortable in social situations.

They find social situations to be draining and enjoy long periods of solitude, which makes it challenging for them to advance in the workplace.

Introverts are good listeners and process information before they speak.

Some of the adjectives that frequently come up in describing introverts are quiet, serious, calm, reserved, detached, restrained, and private. - Wendy Gelberg in The Successful Introvert Click To Tweet

Furthermore, introverts can be seen as “fair, thoughtful, intelligent, competent, diligent, and trustworthy”.

The Successful Introvert By Wendy Gelberg #books #boikreviews #success #introversion #journeytoleadership journeytoleadershipblog.com

How To Manage Your Introversion?

Introverts must understand their strengths and weaknesses.

Introverts must also discipline their active minds.

They tend to make assumptions and create stories in their mind that hold them back and are not always true.

Instead, they must pick stories that propel them in life.

Introverts must learn how to protect their energy and take breaks when they need to in order to rejuvenate and be more alert at work.

There are several additional strategies to manage your introversion in order to achieve success:

  1. Focus outward.
  2. Keep your eyes on the prize.
  3. Practice and fake it until you make it.
  4. Feel fear and go towards it anyways.
  5. Be unafraid of rejection.
  6. Embrace solitude. Protect their space and energy.

The Skills Every Introverts Need To Succeed

Introverts need to learn other extroverted skills to make them more effective in the workplace and to get out their comfort zone.

1. Networking

Networking is challenging for introverts but is necessary and inevitable.

For introverts, networking seems self-serving and distasteful.

To be able to network and connect better with people, it helps to listen to people’s needs, to ask them for advice and to understand that every interaction can pay off in the long run.

2. Communicating Consciously

Because introverts withdraw in their own world, must:

  • Pay attention to their own thoughts.
  • Be careful when and how to communicate with others so that the latter don’t make negative assumptions about them.
  • Stay detached from their work enough to be able to socialize.

3. Promoting Themselves

Self-promotion makes introverts very uncomfortable.

However, your work will not speak for itself.

You have to learn to promote your own work and competencies.

Review

Most books about career development and success are generally geared towards extroverts, which can get discouraging for introverts.

In The Successful Introvert, Wendy Gelberg gives hints on on how, when and where to use your introversion.

She shows that there is strength in introversion, that there are places and moments where your introversion is valuable.

The Successful Introvert by Wendy Gelberg is eye-opening. I recommend this book for shy and introverted leaders (in progress) who want to gain self-awareness, optimize their leadership and develop their career.

Some of us are not leaders yet and wish to become leaders. The thing is our introversion is often times what stops us from getting what we really want in life.

In addition, the corporate world does act like introverts are problematic and often singles them out. Introverts have to learn to accept who they truly are and make the best of their personality type.

Let me know below what you think about this book!

Favorite quote(s)

The key to success is versatility.

Introversion is not a limiting characteristic, although the accompanying traits may require some special accommodations (also true of extraversion, but that’s a subject
for another book). We make comparisons to people who are highly successful and see the ways in which we fall short. Meanwhile, we don’t get to see the struggles or challenges that they had to deal with, so their success looks falsely uncomplicated.

Some of the adjectives that frequently come up in describing introverts are quiet, serious, calm, reserved, detached, restrained, and private. All of these speak to our inner focus, and they can contribute to success when used appropriately.

Ratings 3.5/5

Author

Wendy Gelberg

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Ego Is The Enemy By Ryan Holiday

In Ego Is The Enemy, Ryan Holiday teaches you to stay humble in your aspirations, gracious in your success and resilient in your failures.

How to achieve your aspirations?

Ego is your worst enemy and can easily sink your ship. Ego blocks your progress in life and sometimes fast tracks your downfall. To improve and fight your ego, you must:

  • Be open to feedback but learn to evaluate your own abilities.
  • Practice detachment, tame your imagination before it runs wild and go through life with a quiet confidence.
  • Don’t stay stuck in your head. Instead, participate in what is going on around you.
  • Try staying silent in conversation. Silence can be strategic and is sustainable.
  • Always seek to learn. When you are a student, you absorb what is going on around you, you are focused on gaining knowledge and improving yourself.
  • Avoid being passionate. Instead, favor purpose and realism.
  • Ignore when people slight you and brush off the pain. Just think of it as you paying your dues.
  •  Avoid being prideful. Pride leads to arrogance. It impedes your ability “to learn, to adapt, to be flexible, to build relationships”.
  • Doing ever stop working.

Ego Is The Enemy By Ryan Holiday #book #bookreviews #leadershipbooks #leadership #ego #JourneyToLeadership

How to maintain success?

You have aspirations and you have worked so hard to climb the ladder of success. However, when you start succeeding, you will start facing new ego problems that can quickly erode your success. To maintain long-term success:

  • Don’t pretend that you know what you are doing. Instead, keep learning, stay focused on facts and do your best.
  • Don’t compare yourself to others or try to keep up with the Joneses because you will end up doing things you don’t want to do.
  • Always remember your purpose and what is important to you before saying yes to opportunities.
  • Don’t be paranoid, entitled or controlling.
  • Learn to organize your thoughts, manage yourself and others.
  • Understand that selflessness and humility are strengths and not weaknesses.
  • Don’t try to be the center of attention, hug the spotlight and take credit for something you didn’t do or deserve.
  • Patiently progress towards you goals. It is better to go at it slow and steady.

How to handle failure?

Ego, power and success can make you delusional. You have to constantly self-monitor and stay attentive for your own downfalls. Moreover, everybody goes through setbacks in life. Failure is not fair and happens to good people too. But with a big ego, you tend to get caught by surprise. Your ego will make it hard for you to handle rock bottom. To be resilient in your failures:

  • Know your worth.
  • Stay humble and on purpose.
  • Don’t abandon your principles and maintain your character.
  • Don’t depend on recognition and reward.
  • Make use of your environment and transform your failures into something positive.
  • Understand that, even if you do everything right and perfect, you still will experience failure.
  • Discipline yourself to do the right thing. It will be hard but it will makes you less self absorbed on the long run.

Review

Ego Is The Enemy by Ryan Holiday is short, practical and direct self-development book. According to Ryan Holiday, there are three stages in life: aspirations, success, failure. You will have to discipline your ego in all three stages if you want to get somewhere. Ego is our own worst enemy. It becomes detrimental to suppress or manage our ego before we develop bad habits. For example, he warns us against common knowledge:

  • Don’t be passionate or you will fail. It is better to be apathetic and acknowledge the realities of your passions.
  • Don’t flatter your ego.
  • Don’t think you know everything.

Ego Is The Enemy is ideal for leaders who want to tame their ego, improve their leadership and relationships.

Let me know below what you think about this book!

Favorite quote(s)

Ego is stolen. Confidence is earned. Ego is self-anointed, its swagger is artifice. One is girding yourself, the other gaslighting. It’s the difference between potent and poisonous. Detachment is a sort of natural ego antidote. For your work to have truth in it, it must come from truth. We will learn that though we think big, we must act and live small in order to accomplish what we seek. The ability to deliberately keep yourself out of the conversation and subsist without its validation. Silence is the respite of the confident and the strong. All of us waste precious life doing things we don’t like, to prove ourselves to people we don’t respect, and to get things we don’t want.

Ratings 4/5

Author

Ryan Holiday  

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5 Ways To Turn Yourself Into An Emotionally Strong Leader

Strong leaders constantly evaluate themselves, check their emotional status, practice self-discipline and maintain their cool no matter what…

Leaders cannot overcome hurdles, make tough decisions and eventually experience positive events if they are not emotionally strong.

Wondering how to become an emotionally strong leader?

5 Ways To Turn Yourself Into An Emotionally Strong Leader #emotionalintelligence #emotionaldiscipline #emotions #emotion #leader #leadershipdevelopment https://journeytoleadershipblog.com

1. Understand that your emotions are useful

Your emotions are there to guide you through life and not superimpose over your life because life is more than your emotions. Of course, you have relationships you care about, a purpose in life, passions and goals.

Good or bad, positive or negative, your emotions are useful and shouldn’t control your life.

Being able to gain control over your emotions is all about recognizing which emotion you are dealing with, acquiring self-awareness, engaging in positive self-talk and forging positive habits.

2. Acknowledge that everybody has problems

Everybody has problems and is a part of life. You just have to face them sooner or later.

The truth is there isn’t a person in this world who is problem free. There are just some people who are able to handle them and others who aren’t.

Emotionally strong leaders are solution-oriented and understand that problems actually build character, experience, grit and stamina.

3. Learn from your failures

There is always a lesson that can be learnt from your failures.

That is why there is no need to dwell on the past, but mental muscles are built through adversity and more lessons are learnt from failures than from success.

4. Realize that your mind can adapt to just about anything

Whatever you are going through, however uncomfortable you may feel, emotionally strong leaders don’t run away from their problems.

After a while, you will grow, get out of your comfort zone and your mind will simply adjust to your circumstances.

Adaptable leaders know how to self-regulate, focus on the important things they can control and don’t focus on the drama.

5. Find your purpose

Your purpose is made of clear life goals that will motivate you, help you wake up in the morning and help you overcome adversity.

When emotionally strong leaders have found their purpose and their inner motivator, they are able to focus on the essentials, easily influence and motivate others.

Last Words Of Advice!

Give yourself the freedom to express your thoughts and emotions when you really want to.

Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!

Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.

Journey To Leadership is now hosting networking events…

Come and join us in Paris on March 26th, 2021!

Purchase your tickets for all our events on Eventbrite and Meetup.com!

Subscribe to Journey To Leadership

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4 Proven Strategies Leaders Use To Overcome Fear

Leaders often have to make tough calls, take huge risks and face their deepest fears on a daily basis.

Fear has been infused into us since childhood, is often employed as an employee management tool, and guarantees a unique and universal experience at the same time.

Indeed, the same fear can manifest itself differently, can be based on different experiences and interpretations of events.

The truth is fear can be a friend or an enemy, can have a positive or negative impact, can be a motivator or an hindrance. It all depends on your understanding of your emotions, of fear itself and your level of self-control.

Wondering what are the best strategies to overcome your fears?

Most of the time, fear is standing right in front of our personal goals.

Hopefully, to every problem there is a solution.

Below are 4 proven strategies leaders use to overcome their fears.

4 Proven Strategies Leaders Use To Overcome Fear #fear #overcomefear #successmindset https://journeytoleadershipblog.com

1. Leaders identify their fears

Before overcoming your fears, you first have to identify them.

When you do identify them, it is time to write them down.

If you are unable to identify them, try journaling and describing on paper the situation that is bringing you fear to see if you can uncover a pattern or try asking the people closest to you.

Furthermore, journaling is a great way to acknowledge experiences, detach yourself from the fearful situation, log your thoughts during challenges, and to label your emotions.

2. Leaders get in touch with their inner self

Most people spend their entire life being completely disconnected with their inner self, without getting to know who they truly are and without achieving their life’s purpose.

That is how some many fears remain hidden and and it becomes necessary to get in touch with your inner self to overcome them.

Through exercise, meditation, visualization and deep breathing techniques, you can unclutter your mind and access your intuition.

3. Leaders upgrade their mindset

During difficult and fear inducing situations, it becomes detrimental to analyze your thoughts and feelings.

When you catch yourself thinking negatively, it helps to stop that thought, rewire your brain and replace that thought with a positive one.

After a while, you will come to understand yourself, fear and all its intricacies.

4. Leaders directly confront their fears

The best way to overcome your fears is to face them head on. Avoiding them might only increase your anxieties and your fears.

Once you face them, you will realize that there wasn’t really much to be afraid of.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You… Click To Tweet

Last Words Of Advice!

Once you have identified your fears and the triggers associated to them, you will have more control over yourself, see the situation clearly and understand that these feelings often times don’t make sense.

Control your fears before they control you!

Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!

Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.

Journey To Leadership is now hosting networking events…

Come and join us in Paris on January 22nd, 2021!

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7 Tips To Successfully Manage A Healthy Work-Life Balance

Work is an integral part of life: we spend most of our waking hours at work more than anything else.

Lack of work-life balance has direct repercussions on our health, finances and families, creates fatigue, poor judgement, and poor performance.

Creating work-life balance means that you are satisfied with your contributions to your life and work, that you are able to create a sustainable synergy between both, and that you are fueled by them on a daily basis.

Wondering what you can do to create a healthy work-life balance?

7 Tips To Successfully Manage A Healthy Work-Life Balance #work #balance #worklifebalance #leadershipdevelopment #journeytoleadership journeytoleadershipblog.com

1. Take care of yourself

In order to manage a healthy work life balance, you have to put yourself first, value your health and well-being, and boost your leadership self-esteem from time to time.

It is cliché but it is true: when you fly on airplane, you must put your mask on first before assisting others.

2. Be clear about your purpose

A healthy work-life balance can be motivated by life changing events or by a desire to do better.

It helps to identify the reasons why you are working, and to establish a personal mission statement.

Then, you can set specific goals for yourself to increase motivation, to build up confidence and to stay focused.

3. Assess your strengths and weaknesses

Assessing your strengths and weaknesses is a great way to figure out where and how to apply them, to know when and how to say no and to get the most out of your work day.

If your aren’t applying your strengths and interests at work, find areas outside of work to do so.

4. Be mindful of your core habits

Implementing a successful work-life balance can be overwhelming at first but it makes sense in the long run.

You can start by:

  • Challenging your core habits and deal with change one at a time.
  • Prioritizing what matters most, avoid multitasking, pay attention to the vital few, keep your life simple and don’t be afraid of missing out.
  • Being more disciplined. In order to make your life worthwhile, avoid distractions. This means that you have to shut down your phones, your television and avoid checking your emails outside of work.

5. Get rid of stressors and useless activities

Some activities are useless when they don’t align with your values and principles.

Others create more stress than expected or wanted.

It becomes detrimental to identify these stressors, the things that fulfill you the most and those that don’t. What activities engage you the most?

6. Manage your time effectively

A healthy work-life balance involves wise time management, self-discipline, and creates a better quantity to quality ratio.

If you are allowed flexible hours or remote working, put the power of internet to good use and work from home.

Employees working from home are more productive, have reduced commuting time, have less stress, are not constantly bothered by events in the office.

Remote working also allows the organization to save money on energy consumption and office space.

7. Learn to fully disconnect

During the day, clear out at least one hour to relax and empty out your mind through meditation or by exercising.

After work, learn to disconnect, leave work for the workplace and concentrate on your family and friends when you are with them.

Dedicate more hours to sleep. Sleep is a cure for many diseases. It helps to eliminate bad toxins, to increase your focus and your job performance.

Furthermore, promote well-being in the workplace and take vacations.

Last Words Of Advice!

Finally, give yourself the space and the time to explore new things and to see what works for you.

 

Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!

Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.

Journey To Leadership is now hosting networking events…

Come and join us in Paris on November 27th, 2020!

Purchase your tickets for all our events on Eventbrite and Meetup.com!

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18 Things Leaders Do While In Lockdown

Whether you have been infected, lost a loved one, lost your job, are working from home or simply stuck in one place, the pandemic is affecting everyone…

There are different things that leaders can do to get their mind of the news and still stay productive, especially in this day and age where we are always connected thanks to the internet.

I have compiled a list of introspective and extrospective activities to do at work or at home. This way, you can grow as a leader and have fun at the same time.

Wondering what activities you can take up to keep you busy during lockdown?

18 Things Leaders Do While In Lockdown #selfdevelopment #growth #leadership #covid19 #coronavirus journeytoleadershipblog.com

1. Stay connected

Quarantine can be rough… especially if you are an extrovert. If you’re an introvert, it is a walk in the park.

It is important to stay connected with your support system and with your team at work.

Setting up your network and allowing your team to work from home will be more effective and ensure social connection. Posting short videos about the state of the company can keep your team alert and boost morale.

If you have done all this and still feel bored, you can:

  • Join live parties online.
  • Start conversations with random people on social media.

You will quickly notice that you are not the only one that is going through it.

2. Stay informed

It just seems that every way we turn we are being submerged with information of the pandemic arousing fear and a general sense of anxiety. 

It becomes vital for your mental health to find balance and:

  • Not give in to fear.
  • Detach yourself from the news.
  • Get your information from trusted news outlets.
  • Fact check the information that you are receiving.

3. Take care of business as usual

Being at home, doesn’t mean that you can rest on your laurels and ignore your business.

If you are still employed, you have to stay disciplined. You may also want to get ahead and anticipate needs:

  • Assess your current work situation and plan for the future.
  • Look at your career and see if there is something you can improve.
  • Hold business meetings online per usual.
  • Go through your emails and clear them out.
  • Be grateful that you are still employed.
  • Don’t break down your standards.
  • Improve work processes.

4. Stay transparent

Some leaders will get laid off or will have to lay some people off.

It is detrimental for you to be transparent with your team about the actions that will be taken next.

5. Delegate

During this time, leaders lose control of some activities, have to delegate and trust their team with some tasks.

Leaders will have to check in with their team more often to measure progress. 

6. Stick to a schedule

To keep calm, you may want to stay busy, create a list of priorities and keep a morning routine.

Your schedule will keep you accountable and will get you out of bed. 

7. Stay clean

This is not the end of the world and you don’t have to give up on yourself.

What you need to do is maintain basic hygiene:

  • Groom yourself.
  • Wear clean clothes.
  • Clean and declutter your house.
  • Fix something around the house.

8. Take care of your mind

Now, more than ever, your ability to stay calm and be at peace with yourself will be tested:

  • Pray or meditate.
  • Embrace solitude.
  • Relax and sleep.
  • Do some gardening.
  • Spend time with yourself and your thoughts. resolve internal conflict.
  • Adopt an attitude of gratitude. Be grateful that you are safe and doing OK.
  • Assess your strengths and weaknesses. Then realign yourself with your goals and purpose.

9. Take care of yourself

You are still allowed to exercise. If you don’t want to go out and exercise, you can go on youtube and mimic a dance or fitness video. 

Don’t take this time to slum it up in your house.

  • Boost your immune system.
  • Don’t abuse substances to cope  with the situation.

10. Try something new

You have a lot of free time to try new things, to take risks and to do something you always wanted to do.

For example, if you have lost your job, start the business you have always wanted or try a sport that you have never done before that can help you relax.

11. Learn something new

You have got a lot of time on your hands to acquire knowledge.

From the comfort of your home, you can take the opportunity to learn a new language, learn a new instrument, take an online course, stay on top of the latest technology, perfect a skill or a process.

12. Help someone other than yourself

You can try lifting other people’s spirit by helping someone other than yourself:

  • See if your neighbor needs anything.
  • Give to charity and feed those who are in need.
  • Protect the vulnerable and take care of the people who cannot take care of themselves. 

13. Binge your favorite show, book or podcast

  • Watch your favorite TV shows, movies or discover new ones.
  • Read that book that you always wanted to read.
  • Listen to music or leadership podcasts.
  • Play memory or board games.

14. Sharpen your culinary skills

Even if you are not the best cook, you can make your own meals and:

  • Try different recipes.
  • Turn them into special events.
  • Eat healthy and enjoy every meal like it was your last.

15. Look outside your window

The important part is that you stay home and stay safe.

However, you can look outside and watch people going about their lives.

16. Shop online

You don’t have to purchase what is in your cart.

But, affecting to shop online will take your minds out of things.

17. Find ways to make money online

There are realistic ways to make money online nowadays.

You can start a blog, do a podcast, sell services online, take surveys or even get paid for searching the web.

18. That’s all I got

Do whatever you want…just stay safe and stay home.

Last Words Of Advice!

Anxiety is at an all time high. People are worried for their safety and health, for their job security, and for the well-being of their loved ones.

It becomes important to maintain a positive if not healthy mindset during this time and do our best to protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Finally, there isn’t just bad news out there: pollution levels have receded in many countries and some wars have paused across the globe.

 

Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!

Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.

 

 

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The Importance Of Kindness In Leadership

Kindness is extremely hard to implement in the world we live in today because according to popular belief, kindness is weakness…

However, in the workplace, kindness is essential to leadership success.

Furthermore, genuine acts of kindness in the workplace don’t go unnoticed as people tend to pay it forward.

Indeed, most people who have been through fire in their personal and professional life appreciate serenity and kindness. They would try everything to maintain their self-worth and peace of mind.

Wondering how to develop kindness in the workplace?

The Importance Of Kindness In Leadership #leadership #kindness journeytoleadershipblog.com

Benefits Of Kindness in Leadership

Kind leaders act with the best interest and on behalf of their team and organization. They are authentic, humble, have high morals and a sense of decency.

In kind organization, leaders believe that the people are the heart of the organization.

Furthermore, leaders are able to increase engagement and empower team members who gradually grow in confidence.

In addition, being kind doesn’t mean that you are soft, a pushover, that you are avoiding conflict, that you lack boundaries, that you are people pleasing or that you have to put up with bad behavior.

It means that you take time to listen and understand the people around you before acting or making a decision. It also means that you analyze the consequences of your decisions. 

1. Kind leaders are kind to themselves

Kind leaders are firstly kind to themselves and the people closest to them.

They celebrate their own success, forgive themselves when they make mistakes and set clear boundaries.

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. - Lao Tzu Click To Tweet

2. Kind leaders use the Golden Rule

The best and strongest leaders put people first and treat their team with kindness.

They acknowledge people, show respect and demonstrate that they care. They simply treat people the way they want to be treated. They understand that they can get more things done, they have to treat people like people.

For example, they have face to face conversations and ask people how they are doing. They can be generous with their time and actively listen to people.

3. Kind leaders set clear expectations

They let people know what needs to be done to avoid miscommunication, misinterpretation, misdirections.

They don’t give out false objectives and avoid sending their team members on a wild goose chase. They celebrate their success and the success of others..

Team members will then commit to their work and reach their goals.

4. Kind leaders tell the truth

Telling the truth encourages growth within the team and builds up the leader’s credibility and respect.

They understand that the truth comes with consequences but they also want the best out of their teams so they overpass their need for self-preservation or self-interest.

They place people in the right positions and give honest feedback to help people perform at their best.

5. Kind leaders agree to disagree

A difference in opinion doesn’t dictate their character.

They have great communication skills and can handle tough conversations.

They don’t ostracize or belittle people who don’t like them.

6. Kind leaders believe in equality and equity

They treat everyone equally, regardless of their personal bias, stereotypes, personality, character and performance.

They are culturally sensitive and advocate for inclusion.

7. Kind leaders create a safe environment

Kind workplaces increase productivity and improve the company culture.

Leaders understand that employees need to feel safe in order to be productive.

Unkind leaders instill fear and use their power and position to make their employees comply. Employees feel unsafe and tend to quit their jobs or resort to the same bad behavior to survive.

Last Words Of Advice!

What of being kind requires too much time and effort that I don’t have? Kindness is a long term investment that requires authenticity, strength and courage.

There are some people who will create chaos, use fear and anger as a management, and try to discourage you from being kind.

 

Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!

Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.

 

 

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Unf*** Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life By Gary John Bishop

Self talk is everything. Matter of fact, it has been proven that negative self talk has tremendous impact on your health and your level of success.

Indeed, we can determine our emotions and actions by steering our thoughts. We can then control out thoughts by monitoring our self talk and the language we use. We can finally use strong and assertive language when speaking to and about ourselves.

There are several principles to change your mindset, to unf*** yourself and to achieve true success.

1. Your life won’t change until you make it

You must understand that you:

  • Have the life that you are willing to put up with.
  • Are not defined by your circumstances but only how you respond to them.
  • Even if you have no control over life events, you have full control of how you respond to it.

So, it is imperative that you stop playing the victim, stop blaming others, stop blaming luck, your childhood and other external influences for your circumstances.

You must also find out what you are willing or unwilling to pursue and put up with.

2. You will succeed at whatever you set your mind to

The reality is that you are already winning at the life you have.

Your failures and hurts are hidden victories that are pushing towards your subconscious goals in whatever domain you are working in.

You will find out sooner or later that you are really good at what you believe, at realizing your assumptions about yourself.

Therefore, once you understand that principle, you can use that aspect of our mind to go after positive goals.

Unf*** Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life By Gary John Bishop #books #bookreview #overcomefear #success

3. It’s all a matter of perspective

Negative experiences have a tendency to spread like wildfire. It seeps through our everyday life and turn small problems into bigger ones.

The reality is everybody has problems but your problem is not always as big as it seems. To put things into perspective:

  • Don’t allow your struggles to overlap with different aspects of your life.
  • Take several steps back until you have a clear logical view of your problems.
  • Face your past and future. You have probably faced these same problems in the past or worse and have overcome them. Looking back at your past, you will realize how ridiculous some problems now seem.
  • Believe that the future has great things in store for you. 
  • Solve problems one by one.

4. You must take risks to be successful

We are obsessed with a need for safety and for certainty. Subsequently, we have stopped taking risks.

At some point in your life, you were taking risks.

Those risks have now become an inherent part of your routine. The moment you stop taking risks is the moment your life becomes flat and unsuccessful.

To be successful, you have to be willing to take risks, to face uncertainty, to look stupid and to be judged.

5. You are not your feelings

What you think and what you do are two different things and won’t necessarily align.

Most successful people and overachievers have understood that principle.

They feel the negative feelings but focus and act independently from their thoughts.

You don’t have to feel like it to act like it. By acting or by fully immersing yourself in activities, you reduce the amount of negative thoughts that you experience.

6. Success is waiting outside of your comfort zone

Some of your biggest achievements happened when you stepped out your comfort zone.

The more you remove yourself from your comfort zone, the more you will feel a sense of accomplishments when you succeed.

7. You have to be relentless

To get what you want, you have to be relentless, avoid distractions and disagree with negative thoughts.

You also have to start focusing on the problems in front of you, one obstacle at a time.

You don’t give up, you don’t quit, you don’t change your plans.

8. Your expectations won’t always be met

Remember that you have the freedom to choose.

Life and opportunities will never fully meet your expectations.

That’s why you have to learn to expect nothing and accept everything.

Review

Unf*** Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life by Gary John Bishop, is designed for people who feel stuck in life, who lack introspection and who need to build themselves up from the inside out.

Unf*** Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life teaches you how to talk to yourself, to find your true potential, to stop self sabotage and being offended.

Gary John Bishop repurposed the ancient principles of stoicism and shares tips on how to master your mind in order to be successful.

He also provides you with great words of affirmation and personal assertions. So, check it out!

Let me know below what you think about this book!

Favorite quote(s)

The more you tell yourself how hard something is, the harder it will actually seem.

It’s entirely within our power to determine how we think about and talk about our problems. They can be a nuisance or a stepping stone. They can hold us down or lift us up.

everything is solve-able, and if you can’t see a solution, it only means you haven’t worked it out yet.

Success is never certain. It never comes without risk.

Ratings 3.5/5

Author

Gary John Bishop

 

 

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The Importance Of Becoming A Self-Disciplined Leader

Self-Disciplined LeaderAs a leader and as someone always searching for innovative ideas, I have to say that I have been struggling with staying focused on one topic at a time, controlling my train of thoughts and filtering negative emotions.

Although I come from a very disciplined home, my mind is sometimes undisciplined: tens of thousands of ideas flash through my mind in a second, which makes it difficult for my team to follow me.

 

By taking time out in the day solely for the thinking process, I have allowed myself to successfully manage my thoughts and become a self-disciplined leader.

Wondering how to acquire self-discipline or how self-discipline can successfully grow your career?

What is self-discipline?

Firstly, self-discipline is one of the most important component of leadership. Self-discipline develops in you set ways for your thoughts, actions and habits. Self-discipline means doing what needs to be done when you don’t feel like doing it.

In addition, it means that you accept your responsibilities and accomplish your goals because they are the best profitable option but not because you want to.

Self-discipline implies self-management or self-control, self-motivation, self-reliance, self-confidence and self-awareness and eventually, remains the basis for trust.

Secondly, self-discipline is an acquired skill, has several degrees to it and is not achieved overnight. It has to be practiced to become easier, to create routine and structure.

Lastly, early responsibilities in life, small tasks and assignments, given by parents or managers, allow people to gain discipline from a young age and shape their character.

Characteristics of self-disciplined leaders

Self-disciplined leaders are successful and ultimately become better at what they do. They are active, self-controlled, organized, are able to censor themselves and to build great relationships.

Leaders use self-discipline to sharpen their willpower and decisions making skills, to command respect from others and to lead by example, to achieve their goals regardless of their feelings, to gain profit and to look beyond hard work, to stick to their decisions, to evaluate themselves and place boundaries, to compartmentalize their emotions.

Furthermore, self-disciplined leaders have no fear of the future, are respected and dependable.

Self-disciplined leaders practice thoughts management, emotional intelligence, time management, character building, self-awareness and team building until they turn those soft skills into habits.

HABIT #1: MIND MANAGEMENT

Your thoughts, negative or positive, become your reality whether you want it or not. Self-disciplined leaders have peace of mind, no matter the situation.

For self-disciplined leaders, controlling your emotions is barely about becoming stoic, but about acknowledging your emotions, understanding them and keeping them in check before acting on them.

In order to control your thoughts:

  1. Nurture your mind with the right stimuli, with empowering thoughts and success stories. Remove distractions from your workspace. Block social media sites during working hours.
  2. Train your brain to handle different situations, and to prepare for both positive and negative outcomes.
  3. Meditate or turn to religion. Meditation brings a sense of contentment and allows you to accept and deal with your thoughts. In religion, controlling your thoughts is more about admitting God’s control over us and relinquishing our problems and emotions to Him. Which is why you need to keep your eyes on God and your focus on your purpose.
  4. Forgive yourself for past mistakes, let go of grudges and regrets,  and keep moving forward.

HABIT #2: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Self disciplined leaders don’t allow their choices and decisions to be dictated by their impulses or feelings. Instead, they:

  • enhance their logical and emotional skills to be able to make sound decisions,
  • control their facial expressions,
  • resist and reject negative feelings,
  • handle stressful situations, conflicts and toxic individuals in a healthy manner,
  • adopt positive attitudes and behaviors.

To discipline your emotions:

  1. Control your thoughts and don’t leave them on autopilot. Pay close attention to your habits, especially in negative situations. Identify which behaviors you consider undisciplined and those that reflect your values ans goals.
  2. Change your self talk.
  3. Meditate on a daily basis, a least 10 minutes a day, to quiet the mind, gain serenity and suppress regrets.
  4. Cultivate gratitude. This will help you transform negative circumstances into positives.
  5. Change your sources of data that you intake and abstain from vain entertainment.
  6. Change or increase your social circle to individuals who possess the qualities and skills that you wish to acquire.
  7. Manage your health by taking care of the essentials. Your mind and body are interconnected and the health of the one impacts the other.
    • Sleep healthy hours and develop a steady night routine. Set an alarm at the same time everyday, put your phone in an unreachable area, don’t hit the snooze button.
    • Acquire a healthy diet.
    • Exercise regularly instead of procrastinating and drown your negative thoughts with dopamine.

HABIT #3: SELF-AWARENESS

Self-discipline allows leader to monitor their behavior in various situations and to assess their strengths and weaknesses, to find their purpose.

Without being aware of your strengths, you are unable to lead effectively. Trying to emulate another leader’s style, strengths destroys your natural talent, your uniqueness, your personality and your therefore your chances for success.

Furthermore, most leaders are blind to their own strengths and weaknesses. Some lead thinking that they possess a particular set of strengths and others lead blind to their own weaknesses.

Get to know yourself at a deeper level, increase your confidence, become more self-aware and quiet your ego:

  1. Renew your thought pattern, invest in your personal growth and don’t allow setbacks to mentally set you back.
  2. Reverting back to the memories of your childhood and recalling what you did well and with pleasure.
  3. Look for a common thread in the things that immediately and sustainably attract your attention throughout your life experiences.
  4. Read books and gain knowledge.
  5. Hire a professional to help identify your strengths and how to employ them.
  6. Take well-known online tests, such as StrenghtsFinder2.0 and StandOut, and cross-reference them.
  7. Asking the people closest to you.
  8. Surround yourself with supporting people. Stay away from yes men, undermining people or groups.
  9. Seek the truth about yourself and be unafraid of failure or the said truth.

HABIT #4: TIME MANAGEMENT

Successful individuals manage their time effectively to ensure that they accomplish their goals, allocate and maximize their time.

In the workplace, missing deadlines irritates and disrupts everyone on the team and makes you appear non accountable. So, to manage your time effectively:

  1. Define an achievable specific goal and apply timelines to it to create overviews of the milestones you wish to achieve. If you don’t have deadlines, create some for yourself.
  2. Make time to achieve your personal goals, follow-up on schedule and meet deadlines. Do not procrastinate, find excuses to postpone your work or allow anyone to distract you and squander your time. Instead, stay busy and focused, and put in the hours required to accomplish your goals.
  3. Prioritize your personal goals and accomplish the most important ones before hand.
  4. Implement a routine and stay focused on the prize.
  5. Make time to be proactive. With an increase in leadership responsibilities, people start pulling the leader in different directions, and the leader ends up doing more of what people desire than what is necessary to be done. Carve out an hour in the day or choose a day in the week to isolate or insulate yourself and execute your tasks that matter.
  6. Make time for yourself. Carve out another hour in your day to recharge your batteries to be more productive and efficient as a leader for your team. You may have to arrive earlier to work.
  7. Respect other people time.

HABIT #5: CHARACTER BUILDING

Not all hardworking and talented beings are disciplined. Therefore, not all hardworking and talented beings are successful.

On one hand, self-discipline helps in creating routine and structure, holding yourself and others to a high standard ( integrity and respect), remaining accountable for your actions on your job, executing your job in detail and delivering on time. Self-discipline also increases maturity and builds stamina and resistance to walk down the leader’s path. That means that you can take a licking and keep on ticking.

On the other hand, self-discipline makes you resilient. You are empowered to stick to your decision, are able to get up when you are knocked down and to keep going when you hear “no”. Building character is a gradual process:

  1. Be consistent with your values (integrity)
  2. Tenacity is also key. Don’t be discouraged or perturbed by obstacles, by failures, by the illusion that your goals are unreachable. Instead, resist the urges of giving in or giving up.
  3. Read, listen, watch motivational elements. For faithful people, turning to your belief system is a great way to stay on track.
  4. Draw lessons from your mistakes.
  5. Monitor what you say. If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything.

HABIT #6: RELATIONSHIP & TEAM BUILDING

Being disciplined allows leaders to command respect from others, to work well with their team members, to handle interactions with employees or customers judiciously.

In order to minimize supervisors intervention:

  1. Define your responsibilities or tasks, avoid stepping on anybody’s toes, delegate tasks appropriately,
  2. Play by the rules, treat your team members as adults and with respect,
  3. Look out for the best interests of the company and your team members,
  4. Coach your team, promote self-discipline amongst them, encourage innovative ideas without even if they fail,
  5. Share your performance expectations with your employees and help them direct their focus towards achieving their goals
  6. Address unacceptable behaviors immediately without punishing or humiliating the perpetrators,
  7. Model yourself as the best leader, avoid taking your job for granting or taking credit for team success or outstanding performance, and stay humble and .

HABIT #7: EXECUTION, MOTIVATION & STRUCTURE

Self-discipline brings predictability, consistency and order to the leader. Self-discipline captures the meaning of the word expectancy and provides the leader with latitude for risk assessment and management. To create structure and improve task execution:

  1. If you are somehow already disciplined in executing task, share your timeline and your attention to detail with others and help them pick up the slack without micro managing.
  2. Clearly, your order brings a sense of control to the team. However, don’t impose your discipline to anyone else.
  3. Focus on starting tasks rather than completing them.
  4. Follow through on your ideas and finish what you have started. Also, track your progress: record the starting time and the end time of your tasks.
  5. Execute your plan in silence, and respect yourself enough to put your money where your mouth is and to come through on your promises.

The Importance Of Becoming A Self-Disciplined Leader

Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!

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9 Common Misconceptions About Leadership

In the workplace, everyone has the potential to become a great leader if they have the right knowledge.

Unfortunately, most of the time, for lack of knowledge, we see our higher ups acting like children and creating toxic workplaces.

They misunderstand the real role leaders should have within their team and organization.

Wondering what are the common misconceptions about leadership?

9 Common Misconceptions About Leadership #leadership #selfimprovement #truth

Misconception #1. Leaders are bosses or managers

Don’t mistake leaders for bosses. Great leaders generally don’t like humiliating people or bossing people around.

Leaders don’t go around telling people what to do but tend to lead by example.

Leaders have to lead themselves first before they lead anybody else.

They don’t need or want to have power over others. Instead, they influence and empower others. 

Misconception #2. Leaders are not emotional

“Leave your emotions at the door” is an expression that we often hear in the workplace.

The truth is we can’t fully detach our emotions from our circumstances wherever we go.

The truth is nobody wants an emotionless leader who lacks empathy for their team and cannot communicate their emotions.

Why? Because emotions make us human. They are there to help and guide us.

That doesn’t mean that we should wear our emotions on our sleeves and bleed on everyone else.

It means that you should definitely communicate your emotions and that you can share what you are feeling in a disciplined manner.

Misconception #3. Leaders are unkind

We often hear that kind people are generally taken advantage of and don’t make it very far in the world.

People in positions of leadership feels the need to be mean to demonstrate their power and to protect themselves.

However, kind leaders are successful in the workplace because they:

  • Are firm yet vulnerable and are open to accepting help from others.
  • Listen and help their coworkers.
  • Are flexible and supportive.

In return, team members are more motivated, more productive, and are appreciative of a healthy work environment.

Misconception #4. Leaders are confident all the time

Leaders are human too.

They are not always confident and positive.

They have huge responsibilities and developed character, but they still fall prey to insecurities.

However, they make a point to nurture their self-esteem and boost the self-esteem of others. They know how to discipline their emotions because they are aware that they are role models.

Misconception #5. Leaders are professional and private

Leaders are professional but they have a personal life that they can share if they want to.

The reality is that leaders have to open up and get to know their team members.

They have to know what motivates their team and share what motivates them in return.

They need to know what is important to their team so that they create a healthy work-life balance.

Misconception #6. Leaders know everything

Some people think that leaders have to know everything.

Some employee may even challenge their bosses knowledge.

Leaders are not supposed to know everything. They are there to unite and to guide.

Instead, they must surround themselves with the best and rely on them to get all the expertise they need.

They may not be experts but leaders must not feel insecure about not knowing everything. 

Misconception #7. All leaders are extroverted

Extroverts are people persons, are skilled at communicating and speaking their mind.

Because communication skills are highly valued in the workplace, extroverted leaders have a leg up on the competition.

However, introverts can achieve their full potential as well because introverts have their own set of skills. They become wise and understanding leaders who listen to their team and reflect on the best solutions.

Misconception #8. Leaders have high energy

Sure, leaders should exercise and refresh their mind to maintain a certain level of energy.

However, they are not jesters or there to entertain the crowd.

They have to make responsible decisions and stay focused on the vision.

Misconception #9. Leaders are void of mistakes

In reality, leaders make the most mistakes.

They function ahead of the crowd and experience things before anyone else.

They had to make mistakes before they achieve any type of success.

Last Words Of Advice!

There is no general mould for leadership.

Most leaders don’t really need a diploma, title or position.

Furthermore, leadership is a constant work in progress. There are leaders at all levels of life and there are various leadership styles for leaders to express themselves.

 

Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!

Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.

 

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