If anything, we should come out the pandemic wiser and savvier than when it all began…
Indeed, people now think, consume data and goods differently than before the pandemic.
Furthermore, there is a shift in the way people perceive leadership and their job.
No situation is permanent and to every negative situation, there are always lessons that every leader can use.
It serves to think about these unprecedented times as a way to grow, to learn and to strengthen your leadership.
Wondering what leaders can take away from these uncertain times?
Below are 10 lessons that will crisis-proof your leadership in uncertain times.
Leadership lessons for personal use
1. Protect your emotional, physical and mental health.
2. Value who you are and what you have.
3. Embrace solitude: the best company you can find is your own.
4. Live in the present.
5. Avoid worrying about the future and what others think of you.
6. Avoid competing and comparing yourself to others.
7. Make time for what is important.
8. Take time for self-reflection, to focus on yourself and to take care of yourself.
9. Start making decisions on your own term.
10. Avoid procrastinating and go after what you want because life is too short. The best time to start is now!
11. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
Leadership lessons for work
12. Learn as much as you can and leverage that knowledge for career advancement.
13. Stay in environments that will value you.
14. Avoid relying on one stream of income.
15. Realize that there is more to life than work.
Leadership lessons for life
16. Enjoy every single moment in life.
17. Everything is temporary. Whatever you are going through, it will pass.
18. Develop critical thinking and do your own research.
19. Pay attention to people’s actions because actions speaks louder than words.
20. Become emotionally disciplined. We cannot control what happens to us but we can control how we react to it.
21. Stay positive. We cannot predict the future but we can always hope for the best.
Leadership lessons for relationships
22. Treat everybody differently. Everybody is different and everybody learns at their own rate.
23. Apply the Golden Rule. The people you step on your way up are the people you will pass on your way down.
24. Choose your friends wisely and avoid taking anyone for granted.
25. Do your best to build strong and long-lasting relationships.
Last words of advice!
No matter what you have endured during these past few months, there is always room for improvement, opportunities to grow and to adjust to these uncertain times.
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.
When you know who you are, you immediately become confident and feel empowered.
Indeed, you stop looking for external validation.
You start experimenting and looking for validation from only yourself.
Wondering how to figure out who you are?
1. Take an assessment test
Sometimes, you just don’t know where to start.
The good news is that there are several self-assessment tools out there to help you figure out who you are, your personality type, your core values, your strengths and weaknesses.
2. Take time off
Leaders have been conditioned through their role to take care of everyone else.
Taking time off in solitude does wonder for self-care, self-awareness and leadership development.
Solitude scares most people because they lack the courage to confront themselves.
However, only in solitude will you be able to observe yourself, identify all facets of your personality, discipline your thoughts and emotions.
3. Review your life
Writing things down allows you to review your life, keep track of your habits and observe your patterns of behavior.
It also allows you clarify and analyze your thoughts.
In addition, journaling is a great way to extact the essence of who you are and the lessons from past experiences whether they’ve been positive or negative.
4. Explore
Trying new things is a great way to explore and find out what you really like and don’t like, what you’re good or bad at, what feels right or wrong, what fuels your fire or what drains you.
Besides, this will help you acknowledge your differences, set healthy boundaries, become more discerning and do the things that you really want to do.
5. Observe your relationships
They say that you are the sum of the 5 closest people to you.
If you pay attention to your relationships, you’ll notice what you share in common and what you are made of.
Furthermore, you’ll notice who you look up to, who you relate to, what you tolerate and what you imitate.
Last Words Of Advice
Remember that an original is more valuable than a copy.
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.
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz gathers four “agreements” to live by to ensure a better lifestyle, a deeper understanding of life, a life in the moment.
What is an agreement?
The four agreements come from the Toltec teachings of wisdom. The goal of this book is to make each agreement a habit.
Ask for clarifications rather than making assumptions.
Remember that it is OK to ask questions.
Collect the right data about people and situations first.
Don’t assume that people can read your mind.
Ask for what you want, expect yes or no. Understand that you can say yes or no as well.
The Fourth Agreement
This fourth agreement encourages you to always “do you best” and consolidates all previous three agreements.
Purpose of the agreement
Forming the habit of always doing your best will:
Save you from harsh self-judgement.
Increase your production.
Mature your self-love.
Implementing the agreement
Keep in mind that:
Your best will fluctuate all the time. It will depend on your mood, on your energy level, on your health and on your situation.
You must take action without expecting any rewards. This way, you will be able to enjoy your actions better.
Review
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz provides a very powerful perspective on life. It encourages self-transformation, self-awareness, self acceptance, and the understanding of others.
I found out briefly that The Four Agreements, yet short, is thoughtful and goes straight to the point. It calls out society’s hypocrisy, fear and domestication.
Everyone I know who have read this book has felt elevated. It was therefore hard to resist reading it and I have to say that I did not regret it.
As you read, you will find that you already had the knowledge and the wisdom within you but have been holding it back. You will learn to trust yourself and set yourself free.
Favorite quote(s)
The word is not just a sound or a written symbol. The word is a force; it is the power you have to express and communicate, to think, and thereby to create the events in your life.
Whatever people do, feel, think, or say, don’t take it personally.
Even the opinions you have about yourself are not necessarily true; therefore, you don’t need to take whatever you hear in your own mind personally.
All the sadness and drama you have lived in your life was rooted in making assumptions and taking things personally.
Action is about living fully. Inaction is the way that we deny life. Inaction is sitting in front of the television every day for years because you are afraid to be alive and to take the risk of expressing what you are.
Thoughts, positive or negative, influence our character, our behavior, our vision, how we deal with setbacks, how we build and maintain relationships, has direct impact on our body and health, emotions…
For instance, negative thoughts affect our daily lives more than we think and can send us down a spiral of despair, depression, insecurity, anxiety and self-sabotage.
Needless to say, most people want to improve themselves, to evolve, to get ahead in their work life but have a tendency to welcome negative thoughts or ignore how to shut them down.
Unfortunately, they end up hindering their accomplishments and career advancements.
That is why it is necessary to control the damage caused by our mind, to discipline our thoughts and emotions, to build up a robust positive attitude and to find peace of mind.
Wondering how to process and control negative thoughts, emotions and how to use a positive mindset to get ahead at work?
Thoughts automatically appear in our mind. They come from past experiences and from the fact that we believe what people have previously said about us. They can be brought up by a word, an image or a memory and employ torture words that decrease our self-esteem, worsens situations, such as “should”, “must” and “have to”.
Because they are spontaneous, we think that they are true. In the long run, thoughts sometimes become rigid beliefs, absolute truths.
Therefore, it becomes an imperative to gain control over them. Disciplining your mind, controlling your thoughts and generating emotions regardless of your environment, regardless the level of attack help you become more mature, make healthier decisions, become more creative, escape, heal bad memories.
Maintaining A Positive Mindset
Positive attitudes can become difficult to maintain in challenging situations in the workplace. But once acquired, it is a habit that can help you overcome bad situations.
Indeed, positivity ensures progress, diffuses situations, alleviates stress, reduces fear, increases endurance, increase self-esteem, attracts positive results and better opportunities. It requires inner work and is independent of external circumstances of the outcome.
There are many ways to bring positivity into the workplace and to your mindset.
1. Identify the source of your thoughts
Identify the source of your thoughts and check the memories that you store in your brain.
Be selective about the information that come into your mind.
Stay away from the news because they will negatively affect you.
Have a joke of the day and send it to people who matter to you. Watch shows, listen to podcasts, audio books that will uplift you, inspire you and motivate you.
2. Identify triggers, patterns in your thought process
Identify triggers, patterns in your thought process.
How do they start? What my thoughts say about me? What are the consequences of my thoughts? What do you say regularly to yourself?
3. Be aware of the content of your thoughts
At some point, you must be aware of the content of your thoughts.
Therefore, you will be able to interrupt them whenever they don’t help you, to delete the negative ones and replace them with forward-looking ones. Changing thought patterns is difficult because our brain generally resist change.
4. Understand that you are not the prisoner of your thoughts
When you understand that you are not the prisoner of your thoughts, you will eventually become the one to change the atmosphere in the workplace, won’t allow the environment to drain you or define who you are and won’t let someone else control your behavior.
5. Think about who you want to become
It helps to:
Think about who you want to become and how you want to affect people.
Write down 5 dreams that you have ever have, find 5 words to describe yourself and think about it several a day.
6. Select and force your brain to redirect negative thoughts
When faced with negativity, select and force your brain to redirect negative thoughts toward more pleasant alternatives.
For example, think about the opposite of the negative thought, attach constructive emotions to an outcome, visualize a positive outcome for the situation or visualize the perfect life every day before you got to bed and everyday when you wake up.
7. Focus on what is going right
What’s going right for you?
Focus on what is going right instead of what is going wrong.
People give negative emotions more importance than the positive ones, which conditions our brain to bring up negative thoughts automatically and repetitively for a long period of time.
You have the power to choose and train your brain to give positive emotions more attention.
8. Accept the present moment
Improving your thoughts reside in accepting the present moment and understanding that it is inevitable.
How to focus and stay in the present? Understand that panicking and worrying is useless, that the past is unchangeable and the future uncontrollable, that every experiences have made you who you are today.
9. Give your thoughts a name
Give your thoughts a name and call them out whenever they send us down a negative spiral and challenge every single thought by speaking them out loud.
10. Be grateful
It is easy to complain and whine, so be grateful that you have a job and show appreciation in your contribution.
Get up early and work out before going to work to seize the day and release the endorphins throughout the day.
13. Create a positive work zone
Create a positive work zone by insulating yourself with headphones for example.
Also, avoid gossip at all cost, put up motivational objects around your desk.
Take regular breaks from your cubicle to stop thinking, to meditate and go to the bathroom.
14. Create a better work life balance
It becomes essential to create a better work life balance to protect your home life.
So, leave the drama at work, be strict with your hours, avoid staying late and taking work at home!
15. Behave positively as well
Meaning fake it until you make it…
16. Separate yourself from the negativity
Sooner or later, you will have to separate yourself from the negativity and surround yourself with open-minded people with a positive mindset.
One way would be to stick positive quotes on your wall of your cubicle or on your desk.
17. Change your surroundings
Take a class after work or find a hobby so you have something to look forward to at the end of the day.
18. Find better!
Finally, if this environment isn’t working out the way you want to, you can always discreetly find a more comfortable and productive workplace.
Last Words Of Advice!
There is a need for Positive Leadership.
Positive leaders have a moral compass, are purpose driven, communicate effectively, exhibit integrity and provide emotional safety.
Because they inject good energy into the team, they instill an atmosphere of trust and openness they rip enthusiasm, motivation, transparency from their team.
Positive leaders are able to impact their company culture, improve results, increase performance and enhance job satisfaction.
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.
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?
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…
In Best Self: Be You, Only Better, Mike Bayer encourages people to be their Best Self.
What is your Best Self?
Your Best Self is unique, positive, evolved and aligned with your truth.
When you are being your best self, you are being your most authentic and at your core.
1. How to connect with your Best Self?
Connecting with your Best Self takes time and requires patience. To get in touch with your Best Self:
Express gratitude frequently to get out of a negative space. Make a gratitude list of everything that puts you in a good mood or elevates you in any kind of way.
Embrace change. Everybody can change if they want to, they just have to apply the right motivations.
Identify your fears. Once you have identified your fears, put them to the test to see if your assumptions are true, if they are rational, if they help you succeed, or if they serve your best interests.
Recognize any signs of egotistical behavior. Once you have acknowledge your behavior, assess the origins of it and get your ego in check.
2. Assessing your Best Self
“SPHERES stands for Social life, Personal life, Health, Education, Relationships, Employment, and Spiritual life”.
The SPHERES tool, create by Mike Bayer, is a screening tool used to assess your Best Self in all areas of your life.
Your social life
In the SPHERES tool, your social situation determines how well you project your Best Self to the world.
It then becomes imperative to analyze how you interact with people. You can also assess your ability to send clear messages, to listen to others, to embrace human emotions, to handle highly charged situations, to give and receive feedback.
Your personal life
Your personal life contains your self-image, your self-talk, the level of compassion and respect you have for yourself.
To create the personal life that you want, you will have to:
Rewire your brain to think positively by challenging your internal dialogue.
Get familiar with what you are constantly telling yourself.
Identify the messages you tell yourself when you are under pressure.
Log your thoughts and your self-talk, identify the common themes and tones.
Be compassionate with yourself. Take care of yourself and monitor your stress levels before they snowball. If you take care of yourself, you will definitely be able to take care of others.
Connect with your passions. Your passions will vary throughout your life. Your passions will allow you to express yourself, to strengthen your bond with your Best Self and vibrate at a higher frequency. To find your passions, explore new things, challenge yourself and get out of your comfort zone.
Your health
Prioritizing your well-being allows you to be present, keep a clear mind and achieve your Best Self.
Your education
Remaining in a “lifetime learning mode” will help you evolve into your Best Self and become more self-aware.
Once you find your passions, you will take pleasure in acquiring knowledge in that field.
Your Best Self will gauge who you want to be around, judge the health of a relationship and help you make the tough decisions.
In order to stay connected to your Best Self in all relationships, you must define your core values, exercise them and identify the people who live up to them.
Your employment
We spend most of our days at work.
So, when we are not able to fully be ourselves, our work life tends to become draining.
It somehow becomes important to nurture our Best Selves at work or create a career path that allows us to maximize our potential at work.
Review
In Best Self: Be You, Only Better, Mike Bayer shares tips and tools to help you achieve your Best Self. He helps you make a diagnostic of all the aspects of your life and provides practical solutions to your problems.
Furthermore, Best Self: Be You, Only Better is a workbook that teaches you how to fix what’s inside to fix outside. It is on point when it comes to assessing people’s behavior and can conveniently be revisited several time in your life.
Best Self: Be You, Only Better is ideal for leaders who want to improve their leadership skills and bring their best selves at work. It becomes clear that if you are your best self, you can create the best teams, take care of others and create the best organization.
With this workbook:
Get in touch with your Best Self.
Reach your highest potential.
Find more balance in your life.
Evolve, change, reinvent yourself and improve your life.
Many of society’s “rules” simply don’t apply to us as individuals, and if we spend all our energy on trying to be, do, say, and act like society wants us to, we are simply wasting time we could be spending on discovering and connecting with our Best Self.
Self-care is foundational to living your ideal life.
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz gathers four “agreements” to live by to ensure a better lifestyle, a deeper understanding of life, a life in the moment.
What is an agreement?
The four agreements come from the Toltec teachings of wisdom. The goal of this book is to make each agreement a habit.
Ask for clarifications rather than making assumptions.
Remember that it is OK to ask questions.
Collect the right data about people and situations first.
Don’t assume that people can read your mind.
Ask for what you want, expect yes or no. Understand that you can say yes or no as well.
The Fourth Agreement
This fourth agreement encourages you to always “do you best” and consolidates all previous three agreements.
Purpose of the agreement
Forming the habit of always doing your best will:
Save you from harsh self-judgement.
Increase your production.
Mature your self-love.
Implementing the agreement
Keep in mind that:
Your best will fluctuate all the time. It will depend on your mood, on your energy level, on your health and on your situation.
You must take action without expecting any rewards. This way, you will be able to enjoy your actions better.
Review
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz provides a very powerful perspective on life. It encourages self-transformation, self-awareness, self acceptance, and the understanding of others.
I found out briefly that The Four Agreements, yet short, is thoughtful and goes straight to the point. It calls out society’s hypocrisy, fear and domestication.
Everyone I know who have read this book has felt elevated. It was therefore hard to resist reading it and I have to say that I did not regret it.
As you read, you will find that you already had the knowledge and the wisdom within you but have been holding it back. You will learn to trust yourself and set yourself free.
Favorite quote(s)
The word is not just a sound or a written symbol. The word is a force; it is the power you have to express and communicate, to think, and thereby to create the events in your life.
Whatever people do, feel, think, or say, don’t take it personally.
Even the opinions you have about yourself are not necessarily true; therefore, you don’t need to take whatever you hear in your own mind personally.
All the sadness and drama you have lived in your life was rooted in making assumptions and taking things personally.
Action is about living fully. Inaction is the way that we deny life. Inaction is sitting in front of the television every day for years because you are afraid to be alive and to take the risk of expressing what you are.
Whether or not you’re asked to take on new tasks, to work on different projects or you have been given a new opportunity, saying no without guilt or justification is a leadership skill that will often come into play.
Learning how and why to say no is a vital leadership skill that few people master.
Indeed, it is difficult for some poeple to say no because the word “no” has often a negative connotation and is assimilated to rejection.
In addition, even though the word “no” is powerful, it is often followed by a sense of guilt.
Wondering what are the different ways to say no?
The Benefits Of Saying No
No means no and saying no is a right. In addition, No is a sentence in itself. This means that you don’t have to explain yourself. When you say no to one thing, you:
Automatically say yes to something else.
Commit yourself to something else.
Become honest with yourself and satisfy your basic needs.
Say no to things that are not essential or that don’t add value to your life.
As simply as it is, no is a powerful word in itself and needs no justification. If you don’t want to do something, that’s OK. Don’t apologize for it.
No, thank you
I have a prior commitment
Maybe another time…
I’m honoured but I can’t
Unfortunately, this is not a good time
I am unable to commit to that right now
I cannot fit that into my schedule
I’ll pass on that
I’m not really into that but thank you
I know, I’m sorry
This line works for people who you know, who you care about and who care about you. Otherwise, the person making the request will take this as a sign of request.
Thank you but no thank you
This says that you are somehow flattered by the proposition but cannot commit to it. It has the luxury of not being followed by an excuse.
It’s not doable
It’s not possible
It’s not a good time right now
I’m flattered but I can’t
Thank you for thinking of me but I can’t
Use I don’t instead of I can’t Introduce them to someone or something who can do what they are asking for
I made other plans
This isn’t going to work for me
This is not in my schedule
This is not a priority
Now is not a good time
Maybe next time
This is too last minute
Let me check my calendar and I’ll get back to you
Silence
Silence is a powerful toolgo convey a message. Whether you want to say yes or no, pause and measure your words.
Did you know…?
Changing the conversation is a good way to day no without saying no and to talk about something you care about.
I would rather…
I need to take care of something else
I have other priorities
That would be great but I have other plans
I appreciate that but…
It goes against my principles
It goes against my intuition
Trust your intuition because your gut always knows best. You just have to take the time to listen to it.
This makes me uncomfortable
Let me think about it
Phrases such as these will allow you to buy up some time so you can think of a more appropriate answer.
Last Words Of Advice!
Sometimes, you will meet people who will not respect your no or your setting of boundaries. You don’t have to recant yourself, you simply have the repeat yourself.
If they still don’t respect that, you have every right to walk away.
If you have a hard time saying no, think about the consequences of saying yes. This will motivate you to do the right thing.
Don’t forget that you can also come up with your own ways of saying no.
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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