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…
Great leadership emanates from an ability to make great decisions which comes from making bad decisions and learning from them. The sooner in your career that those bad decisions are made, the better…
Of course, you make fewer mistakes as you progress in your career and as you experience the outcomes of the mistakes, but you never stop making them. In addition, mistakes are more costly as you move up the ladder in a company and can potentially derail your career.
How to characterize leadership blindspots?
First of all, leadership blindspots are often associated to leadership strengths. They appear whenever the leader is utilizing his or her strengths at work.
Second of all, these blindspots don’t disappear, even if you are fully aware of them.
Thirdly, blind spots are situational, adaptive and can be helpful. And finally, blindspots are able to impact other people and followers.
Advice for understanding and dealing with leadership blindspots?
Furthermore, blindspots come with a price and has to be recognized by the leader in order for him or her to find a balance. To do so, leaders have to weigh two conflicting needs:
their need for acting with confidence, believing strongly in their vision, and having faith in themselves, their abilities.
their need for assessing their limitations in order to avoid overconfidence or excessive optimism.
The complex balance between self-confidence and self-doubt is unnatural, contradictory but necessary, depends on each individual and each situation. If there are too many blindspots, the leader can be overly confident and arrogant. If there are too few, the leader is somewhat realistic about the obstacles to face, is aware of his or her strengths and weaknesses.
Are there different levels of blindness?
There are three levels of blindness that a leader could experience:
Lack of awareness level. This is the “most extreme form of a blindspot”. At this level, leaders are constantly surprised or blindsided by events.
Faulty assessment level. At this level, leaders are in denial: they refuse to acknowledge risks, to analyze known weaknesses, and to understand the causes and consequences of their blindspots.
Failure to act level. At this level, leaders know the risks, threats and weaknesses that lay ahead but fail to act on them for lack of skills and resolve. Those leaders are adept to the rule “when in doubt, do nothing” or rather remain in their comfort zones.
How to identify your leadership blindspots?Â
In order to identify your blindspots:
Review your past and present mistakes. Mistakes are indicative of areas of lack of self-awareness and areas of faulty patterns of thinking and behavior. It is advised to identify the most significant mistakes, their causes, patterns of behavior and thinking associated to these mistakes and the actions to be taken on the behalf of the leader to prevent those mistakes from reoccurring.
Consider honest and useful feedback from your trusted advisors.
Gain additional insight by taking the blindspot assessment survey.
Then, question the relative importance of your blindspots in your career and its impacts on yourself, the organization to distinguish which blindspot requires your immediate attention.
What are the different types of leadership blindspots?
Robert Bruce Shaw has classified leadership blindspots in 20 categories:
“Overestimating your strategic capabilities”
“Valuing being right over being effective”
“Failing to balance the what with the how”
“Not seeing your impact on others”
“Believing the rules don’t apply to you”
“Thinking the present is the past”
“Failing to focus on the vital few”
“Taking for granted your team model”
“Overrating the talent on your team”
“Avoiding the tough conversations”
“Trusting the wrong individuals”
“Not developing real successors”
“Failing to capture hearts and minds”
“Losing touch with your shop floor”
“Treating information and opinion as fact”
“Misreading the political landscape”
“Putting personal ambition before the company”
“Clinging to the status quo”
“Underestimating your competitors”
“Being overly optimistic”
Which factors trigger blindspots?
Blindspots often go hand in hand with the leader’s strengths and reappear unexpectedly when the leader does what he or she does best.
There are few factors that lead to blindspots areas:
“Experience gaps“. The blindspot stems from a lack of experience or from a habit of using past experiences to extrapolate a present situation.
“Information overload” describes an inability to pay attention to everything that is happening when engaged in a complex and challenging task.
“Emotional bias” corresponds to an emotional involvement in a particular situation or outcome that clouds judgement.
“Cognitive dissonance” is a psychology term associated to a state in which leaders hold two conflicting views of their self-image. The “conflict is resolved through rationalizing one’s belief or actions in a manner that sustains one’s positive self-image” which reinforces the blindspot.
“Misaligned incentives” are compensation systems that are “designed to focus attention and effort within an organization, with the result being that people focus more on some areas than on others”.
“Hierarchical distortion”. The information transmitted to hierarchy becomes distorted, false, incomplete because:
high-ranking leaders are sometimes detached from the lower levels of the organization.
subordinates tend to sugarcoat information by deference or by fear of retaliation.
high-ranking leaders pay less attention to less powerful people.
“Overconfidence“. Leaders overestimates their own capabilities, skills and knowledge.
How to overcome blindspots?
According to Robert Bruce Shaw, it is not possible to completely suppress blindspots but it is important to recognize them and find ways to work with them? To handle blindspot:
Make an assessment of the problem on your own, stay on contact with frontliners, customers, markets and high potential individuals.
Invest in metrics, processes and data that challenge the leader’s beliefs and basic assumptions.
Develop an ability to recognize, prioritize blindspot warning signs.
Consider feedback from trusted advisors.
“Leaders need to test their ideas and discuss emerging threats with a diverse team of individuals who respect each other’s experience and abilities but are also willing to push each other to reach the best outcomes on the truly critical issues”.
In conclusion, leaders are flawed individuals with strengths, weaknesses and blindspots that are to be acknowledged. Blindspots often show up when the leader is using his or her strengths or reverts to their comfort zone, and cannot be completely resolved. It is up to the leader to stay on the lookout for blindspots, to strike up a balance between self-confidence and self-doubt.
Review
In Leadership Blindspots: How Successful Leaders Identify and Overcome the Weaknesses That Matter, Robert Bruce Shaw analyses leadership behaviors when it comes to blindspots and weaknesses.
He illustrates every single one of his thoughts on blindspots with great and renown leadership examples and concludes each example with an analysis and lessons to take away.
Furthermore, not only this book contains realistic and applicable examples, each paragraph of this book can be read on standalone. In addition, Robert Bruce Shaw provides us with a tool —the blindspot assessment survey— for us to identify whether or not we possess blindspots and to what degree we have incubated them.
I recommend this book to employees who are failing to lead and to boost their careers. It has come to my knowledge that because of my belief system, I am an adept of the rule “when in doubt, stand still” which has not bothered my career but has increased my serenity.
After taking the blindspot assessment test, I have received a low probability of blindspots as I am self-aware of my strengths and of my weaknesses.
In light of this issue, in Leadership Blindspots, Robert Bruce Shaw investigates the existence of leadership blindspot, an “unrecognized weakness or threat that has the potential to undermine a leader’s success” and that becomes evident in the way your team, organizations and markets are perceived.
Finally, Leadership Blindspots was intriguing to me because there are so many books about leadership strengths and developing them. I equally appreciated the fact that he mentioned the need for transparency (better visibility of mistakes thanks to the media) which put leaders are under a lot of pressure, all while trying to overcome their blindspots.
Favorite quote(s)
People who are smart and self-assured are often very skillful at justifying their thinking and behavior—to the point of being in denial about their weaknesses and the threats they face. Their intelligence can work against them when they convince themselves, and often others, that they are right even when they are wrong.
Successful individuals who sometimes stumble often do so because they have no one who can protect them from themselves.
The best leaders develop a range of compensating mechanisms that fit their personalities and the company cultures in which they work. In many cases these leaders don’t fundamentally change the way they think, but instead develop warning systems that surface important weaknesses and threats.
According to Robert Bruce Shaw, in Leadership Blindspots: How Successful Leaders Identify and Overcome the Weaknesses That Matter, great leadership emanates from an ability to make great decisions which comes from making bad decisions and learning from them. The sooner in your career that those bad decisions are made, the better.
Of course, you make fewer mistakes as you progress in your career and as you experience the outcomes of the mistakes, but you never stop making them. In addition, mistakes are more costly as you move up the ladder in a company and can potentially derail your career.
In light of this issue, in Leadership Blindspots, Robert Bruce Shaw investigates the existence of leadership blindspot, an “unrecognized weakness or threat that has the potential to undermine a leader’s success” and that becomes evident in the way your team, organizations and markets are perceived.
How to characterize leadership blindspots?
First of all, leadership blindspots are often associated to leadership strengths. They appear whenever the leader is utilizing his or her strengths at work.
Second of all, blindspots don’t disappear, even if you are fully aware of them.
Thirdly, blindspots are situational, adaptive and can be helpful.
And finally, blindspots are able to impact other people and followers.
Advice for understanding and dealing with leadership blindspots?
Furthermore, blindspots come with a price and has to be recognized by the leader in order for him or her to find a balance.
To do so, leaders have to weigh two conflicting needs:
their need for acting with confidence, believing strongly in their vision, and having faith in themselves, their abilities.
their need for assessing their limitations in order to avoid overconfidence or excessive optimism.
The complex balance between self-confidence and self-doubt is unnatural, contradictory but necessary, depends on each individual and each situation.
If there are too many blindspots, the leader can be overly confident and arrogant. If there are too few blindspots, the leader is somewhat realistic about the obstacles to face, is aware of his or her strengths and weaknesses.
Are there different levels of blindness?
There are three levels of blindness that a leader could experience:
Lack of awareness level. This is the “most extreme form of a blindspot”. At this level, leaders are constantly surprised or blindsided by events.
Faulty assessment level. At this level, leaders are in denial: they refuse to acknowledge risks, to analyze known weaknesses, and to understand the causes and consequences of their blindspots.
Failure to act level. At this level, leaders know the risks, threats and weaknesses that lay ahead but fail to act on them for lack of skills and resolve. Those leaders are adept to the rule “when in doubt, do nothing” or rather remain in their comfort zones.
How to identify your leadership blindspots?Â
In order to identify your blindspots:
Review your past and present mistakes. Mistakes are indicative of blindspots, areas of lack of self-awareness, and areas of faulty patterns of thinking and behavior. It is advised to identify the most significant mistakes, their causes, patterns of behavior and thinking associated to these mistakes and the actions to be taken on the behalf of the leader to prevent those mistakes from reoccurring.
Consider honest and useful feedback from your trusted advisors.
Gain additional insight by taking the blindspot assessment survey.
Then, question the relative importance of your blindspots in your career and its impacts on yourself, the organization to distinguish which blindspot requires your immediate attention.
What are the different types of leadership blindspots?
Robert Bruce Shaw has classified leadership blindspots in 20 categories:
“Overestimating your strategic capabilities”
“Valuing being right over being effective”
“Failing to balance the what with the how”
“Not seeing your impact on others”
“Believing the rules don’t apply to you”
“Thinking the present is the past”
“Failing to focus on the vital few”
“Taking for granted your team model”
“Overrating the talent on your team”
“Avoiding the tough conversations”
“Trusting the wrong individuals”
“Not developing real successors”
“Failing to capture hearts and minds”
“Losing touch with your shop floor”
“Treating information and opinion as fact”
“Misreading the political landscape”
“Putting personal ambition before the company”
“Clinging to the status quo”
“Underestimating your competitors”
“Being overly optimistic”
Which factors trigger blindspots?
Blindspots often go hand in hand with the leader’s strengths and reappear unexpectedly when the leader does what he or she does best.
There are few factors that lead to blindspots areas:
“Experience gaps“. The blindspot stems from a lack of experience or from a habit of using past experiences to extrapolate a present situation.
“Information overload” describes an inability to pay attention to everything that is happening when engaged in a complex and challenging task.
“Emotional bias” corresponds to an emotional involvement in a particular situation or outcome that clouds judgement.
“Cognitive dissonance” is a psychology term associated to a state in which leaders hold two conflicting views of their self-image. The “conflict is resolved through rationalizing one’s belief or actions in a manner that sustains one’s positive self-image” which reinforces the blindspot.
“Misaligned incentives” are compensation systems that are “designed to focus attention and effort within an organization, with the result being that people focus more on some areas than on others”.
“Hierarchical distortion”. The information transmitted to hierarchy becomes distorted, false, incomplete because:
high-ranking leaders are sometimes detached from the lower levels of the organization.
subordinates tend to sugarcoat information by deference or by fear of retaliation.
high-ranking leaders pay less attention to less powerful people.
“Overconfidence“. Leaders overestimates their own capabilities, skills and knowledge.
How to overcome blindspots?
According to Robert Bruce Shaw, it is not possible to completely suppress blindspots but it is important to recognize them and find ways to work with them?
To handle blindspot:
Make an assessment of the problem on your own, stay on contact with frontliners, customers, markets and high potential individuals.
Invest in metrics, processes and data that challenge the leader’s beliefs and basic assumptions.
Develop an ability to recognize, prioritize blindspot warning signs.
Consider feedback from trusted advisors.
“Leaders need to test their ideas and discuss emerging threats with a diverse team of individuals who respect each other’s experience and abilities but are also willing to push each other to reach the best outcomes on the truly critical issues”.
In conclusion, leaders are flawed individuals with strengths, weaknesses and blindspots that are to be acknowledged. Blindspots often show up when the leader is using his or her strengths or reverts to their comfort zone, and cannot be completely resolved.
It is up to the leader to stay on the lookout for blindspots, to strike up a balance between self-confidence and self-doubt.
Review
In Leadership Blindspots: How Successful Leaders Identify and Overcome the Weaknesses That Matter, Robert Bruce Shaw analyses leadership behaviors when it comes to blindspots and weaknesses. He illustrates every single one of his thoughts on blindspots with great and renown leadership examples and concludes each example with an analysis and lessons to take away. Furthermore, not only this book contains realistic and applicable examples, each paragraph of this book can be read on standalone.
In addition, Robert Bruce Shaw provides us with a tool —the blindspot assessment survey— for us to identify whether or not we possess blindspots and to what degree we have incubated them. I recommend this book to employees who are failing to lead and to boost their careers.
It has come to my knowledge that because of my belief system, I am an adept of the rule “when in doubt, stand still” which has not bothered my career but has increased my serenity. After taking the blindspot assessment test, I have received a low probability of blindspots as I am self-aware of my strengths and of my weaknesses.
Finally, Leadership Blindspots was intriguing to me because there are so many books about leadership strengths and developing them.
I equally appreciated the fact that he mentioned the need for transparency (better visibility of mistakes thanks to the media) which put leaders are under a lot of pressure, all while trying to overcome their blindspots.
Favorite quote(s)
People who are smart and self-assured are often very skillful at justifying their thinking and behavior—to the point of being in denial about their weaknesses and the threats they face. Their intelligence can work against them when they convince themselves, and often others, that they are right even when they are wrong.
Successful individuals who sometimes stumble often do so because they have no one who can protect them from themselves.
The best leaders develop a range of compensating mechanisms that fit their personalities and the company cultures in which they work. In many cases these leaders don’t fundamentally change the way they think, but instead develop warning systems that surface important weaknesses and threats.
As 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:
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.
Train your brain to handle different situations, and to prepare for both positive and negative outcomes.
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.
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:
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.
Change your self talk.
Meditate on a daily basis, a least 10 minutes a day, to quiet the mind, gain serenity and suppress regrets.
Cultivate gratitude. This will help you transform negative circumstances into positives.
Change your sources of data that you intake and abstain from vain entertainment.
Change or increase your social circle to individuals who possess the qualities and skills that you wish to acquire.
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:
Renew your thought pattern, invest in your personal growth and don’t allow setbacks to mentally set you back.
Reverting back to the memories of your childhood and recalling what you did well and with pleasure.
Look for a common thread in the things that immediately and sustainably attract your attention throughout your life experiences.
Read books and gain knowledge.
Hire a professional to help identify your strengths and how to employ them.
Surround yourself with supporting people. Stay away from yes men, undermining people or groups.
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:
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.
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.
Prioritize your personal goals and accomplish the most important ones before hand.
Implement a routine and stay focused on the prize.
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.
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.
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:
Be consistent with your values (integrity)
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.
Read, listen, watch motivational elements. For faithful people, turning to your belief system is a great way to stay on track.
Draw lessons from your mistakes.
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:
Define your responsibilities or tasks, avoid stepping on anybody’s toes, delegate tasks appropriately,
Play by the rules, treat your team members as adults and with respect,
Look out for the best interests of the company and your team members,
Coach your team, promote self-discipline amongst them, encourage innovative ideas without even if they fail,
Share your performance expectations with your employees and help them direct their focus towards achieving their goals
Address unacceptable behaviors immediately without punishing or humiliating the perpetrators,
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:
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.
Clearly, your order brings a sense of control to the team. However, don’t impose your discipline to anyone else.
Focus on starting tasks rather than completing them.
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.
Execute your plan in silence, and respect yourself enough to put your money where your mouth is and to come through on your promises.
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.
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 into your mind:
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.
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?
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.
Understand that you are not the prisoner of your thoughts. Be the one to change the atmosphere in the workplace. Don’t allow the environment to drain you or define who you are. Don’t let someone else control your behavior.
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.
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.
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.
Accept the present moment and understand 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.
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.
It is easy to complain and whine, so be grateful that you have a job and show appreciation in your contribution.
Learn to discern toxic coworkers. Don’t tolerate or focus on negative people.
Get up early and work out before going to work to release the endorphins throughout the day.
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.
Create a better work life balance to protect your home life. Leave the drama at work, be strict with your hours, avoid staying late and taking work at home.
Behave positively as well. Meaning fake it until you make it.
Separate yourself from the negativity and surround yourself with open-minded people with a positive mindset. Stick positive quotes on your wall of your cubicle or on your desk.
Take a class after work or find a hobby so you have something to look forward to at the end of the day.
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.
Leadership is a collection of skills that need continual improvement, personal growth and learning.
Leadership requires a lot of self discipline and determination. It is important for leaders to open themselves up for improvement to start slow and fight their way up.
4. The law of navigation
Leaders need to effectively navigate their way through life, while knowing people are depending on them.
In order to give themselves the best chances at success, they:
Are realistic.
Have to stay focused and in control.
Have a solid vision for their destination.
Have enough visibility to change course in time if they want to.
Draw their itinerary from their past failures and successes.
Listen to what their team has to say.
Don’t make commitments lightly.
Plan the course of their action.
5. The law of E. F. Hutton
Leaders become real leaders thanks to their character, relationships, knowledge, experience, past successes and abilities. People will not follow you because of your position.
The law of E. F. Hutton helps you figure out who the real leader in the room really is. To find the real leader, observe the reaction of the people in the room when the real leader speaks.
6. The law of solid ground
Leaders must communicate their character, exemplify their behavior, maintain their credibility and avoid breaking the trust of their followers.
When leaders make a mistake, they must quickly admit it and ask for forgiveness.
7. The law of respect
Leaders who are stronger and better leaders than their followers tend to gain respect.
8. The law of intuition
The law of intuition is a complex part of leadership, relies on instinct, facts and other factors.
Leaders who work with the law of intuition are able to sense a situation, to read people and themselves, to use their intuition to achieve their goals and to solve problems.
9. The law of magnetism
The law of magnetism states that who you are is who you attract.
Leaders who follow this law are able to attract the people who possess the same qualities as they do.
They attract people with same attitude, from the same generation and background, with the same values, life experiences and abilities.
Leaders who observe this law touch people emotionally, know how to communicate with people, connect with them and show that they care.
The more leaders work on the connection with their employees, the more employees are loyal and demonstrate a strong work ethic.
11. The law of the inner circle
The people in the leader’s inner circle will determine the leader’s potential.
Leaders understand that they cannot be a lone ranger and acknowledge the purpose and strengths of the inner circle.
12. The law of empowerment
Successful and secure leaders empower and believe in their team.
Those who don’t create a barrier that their employees cannot overcome.
13. The law of reproduction
The law of reproduction works in a way where only leaders are capable of developing leaders and by teaching them what they know.
Some leaders don’t develop other leaders because they don’t have time or because of their own insecurities.
14. The law of buy in
People buy into leaders who have a vision.
If they don’t like the leader or the vision, they get another leader.
If the leader is credible, then people believe that the vision is credible as well.
15. The law of victory
Leaders who observe this law refuse defeat, dedicate themselves to victory and find a way to achieve success.
16. The law of the big mo
Leaders understand that to create change they need to create momentum.
Momentum is contagious, improves performance and makes the leader look good.
17. The law of priorities
Leaders spend their time prioritizing and recognize that doing more does not equate success.
They use the Pareto principle and the three Rs( requirement, return, reward).
18. The law of sacrifice
Sometimes, leaders have to sacrifice themselves to succeed and to gain opportunities.
The higher you go up on the ladder, the more you have to sacrifice.
19. The law of timing
Successful leaders read situations, recognize when to lead and when to take the right action at the right time.
20. The law of explosive growth
Potential leaders are hard to find and to attract but leaders who develop other leaders multiply growth within their organization.
21. The law of legacy
Leaders who leave a legacy lead with tomorrow in mind, make developing other leaders as part of the culture, sacrifice for future success and pass on the torch.
Review
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow is an easy to read leadership development book.
In The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow, John C. Maxwell makes a list of 21 laws of leadership to help people better themselves and their organization.
These laws are the universal foundation for every area of your life. They can be learnt, be in standalone, have serious consequences, be practiced on a daily basis.
Maxwell has spent most of his life in leadership position. So, he entertains us with uncommon, historical and adventurous examples that everyone can relate to.
Finally, he encourages leaders to learn and go apply what they learnt.
Let me know below what you think about this book!
Favorite quote(s)
Leadership is complicated. It has many facets: respect, experience, emotional strength, people skills, discipline, vision, momentum, timing—the list goes on. As you can see, many factors that come into play in leadership are intangible. That’s why leaders require so much seasoning to be effective.
The good news is that your leadership ability is not static. No matter where you’re starting from, you can get better.
The leader finds the dream and then the people. The people find the leader, and then the dream.
MANY PEOPLE TODAY WANT TO CLIMB UP THE CORPORATE LADDER BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE THAT FREEDOM AND POWER ARE THE PRIZES WAITING AT THE TOP. THEY DON’T REALIZE THAT THE TRUE NATURE OF LEADERSHIP IS REALLY SACRIFICE.
They are honest with themselves and realize when they have harbored behaviors that need to be changed.
Wondering what are the things that you need to stop doing immediately?
#1. Stop depending on people for your self worth
Depending on people for your self-worth is risky because the people who build you up can also break you down.
To find your self-worth, you must stop comparing yourself to others, accept your unique distinctions, discover your abilities, auto-evaluate your role and contributions at work.
#2. Stop trying to be the center of attention
Leaders who place themselves at the center of attention take credit for their employees work, want to appear bigger than they really are, overestimate their contribution.
#3. Stop trying to be liked by everybody
If everybody likes you, you are either a person pleaser, a doormat or delusional.
#4. Stop being overly emotions
Emotions give us insight into our subconscious.
They are valuable tool to understand ourselves but they need to be controlled in order to lead and make the best decisions.
#5. Stop encouraging aggressive office politics
Toxic leaders turn their workplace into the hunger games for their own environment.
Workers then become unproductive and pay more attention to the drama than results and quality of work.
#6. Stop creating unreachable goals
Unreachable goals put unnecessary pressure on your employees.
Not every employee knows how to handle their stress. They most likely will end up getting distracted, lashing out at others or underperforming.
#7. Stop over processing everything
Leaders create processes that overwhelm their employees and that take time.
Deconstructing some processes help employees get their job done faster.
#8. Stop scheduling meetings just to do meetings
We have all been on a job where we go through pointless and endless meetings.
We come out those meetings drained, confused and filled with useless information.
#9. Stop the lack of transparency
It’s OK to change opinions or come through with mew decisions.
The only thing, you have to speak the truth, to be transparent, share when and why your opinions and decisions have changed.
#10. Stop amplifying internal conflicts
Conflicts are inevitable in the workplace.
You work with people who were raised differently and who have different sets of values.
However, internal conflicts create distractions, drama and not results.
It is best to shut down internal conflicts and focus on the real work issues.
#11. Stop micromanaging your team
Micromanaging leaders need to stay in control at all times.
They believe that they get things done better on their own and have a hard time delegating.
They just cannot control everything.
#12. Stop spreading yourself too thin
As a leader, you want to know everything and be everywhere at once.
You engage in so many projects that you don’t have the time to breathe of enjoy them.
The reality is that you cannot participate in everything because you will end up underperforming.
If you want to mater everything, you will master none. Stop saying yes to everything.
#13. Stop passing judgement
By passing judgement, you place yourself above other people and you push them away.
#14. Stop trying to win
Some leaders want to compete with their employees and win at all cost.
They want to be better at everything.
The reality is that they force their employees to dull themselves down, to downplay their achievements and to avoid speaking up when things go wrong.
#15. Stop showing off your intellect
Some leaders feel the need to express how smart they are and how much they know, even if they don’t.
#16. Stop neglecting your relationships
You have to make time for your employees and those you value.
Taking care of your relationships create employee engagement and alignment.
#17. Stop obsessing over results
When you obsess over results you forget to:
observe the bigger picture,
nurture your core values and character,
pay attention to those who drive your business.
#18. Stop overworking yourself
Leaders are constantly under pressure over long periods of time.
To combat that pressure, some leaders micromanage, spread themselves thin, arrive early and stay late.
If they don’t nurture a healthy work life balance, they can easily break down and burn out.
#19. Stop quitting
Perseverance is key and giving up too soon will cause you to miss out on success.
Besides, quitting when things get tough will demoralize your team ad damage your self-esteem.
#20. Stop procrastinating
Procrastination is the action of putting off an important yet unpleasant task.
It is avoiding pain and pushing it back for later, it is neither starting nor completing a task.
However, a leader has no room for procrastination.
Leaders who procrastinate are ineffective, unproductive and unaware of their own abilities.
#21. Stop sandbagging your employees
Place your employees in positions where they can maximize their potential.
#22. Stop being negative
Negativity is contagious and hard to get rid of in the workplace.
Negative leaders don’t motivate their team and find problems to every solutions.
#23. Stop acting alone
Leaders make decisions alone but they need their team to bring their visions to life.
They don’t need to act alone if they surround themselves with the right people.
Last Words Of Advice!
As a leader, you are role models to their employees.
You have to constantly be careful of the behaviors that you demonstrate and that you want to perpetuate.
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 are a leader, people will be watching your every moves like a hawk.
So, there are a couple of things to do and not to do in order to be unimpeachable and to represent your true self well.
Sometimes, the novelty of the job, the number of people you meet, the quantity of information transiting in your direction, the new type of pressure tend to make you forget your role as a leader.
The truth is that you do during your first few days as a leader will mark memories in the long run.
Take a moment to drain it all in and celebrate success. When you access a new position, you are either frightened or excited.
Take some time to assess your new role and the advancement in your career, on your success.
Get your personal life together. Have hobbies and a strong support system in place.
Prepare your transition to your new position.
#2. Mind your character
When you meet someone for the first time, they will have a tendency to test you, your principles, character, core values and boundaries.
For example, from your boss to the cleaning lady, they will all check if you get angry easily or his much patience you have.
It is important to always be developing yourself as a leader.
#3. Check your attitude
A positive attitude is everything and will determine your heights to success. During the first few months, it is detrimental to:
Stay visible.
Adopt a winning strategy.
Be aware of your actions. You are now a role model.
Keep a positive attitude and body language, even when you don’t feel like it.
#4. Be approachable
Sometimes, it’s important to seem approachable:
Introduce yourself to people even if you don’t know them or are not introduced. Don’t wait too long before introducing yourself or else it will quickly get awkward.
Remember names when you are being introduced.
Try to get along with people for the first few days.
Help others find their motivation.
#5. Groom yourself and dress like a leader
No matter what people say, first impressions matter unfortunately. Dressing like a leader will help you feel confident and will in consequence increase your ability to lead.
Even though you know that clothes don’t define your character, most people make snap judgments.
Also, observe the company’s dress code and dress accordingly.
#6. Keep learning
Learning is a humbling process. Even though new leaders think that they can handle their position with their old skills and their old knowledge, most of them don’t have the necessary skills to be a leader.
Make sure that you study and learn the corporate culture.
Evaluate what you have learned from your previous jobs and from the previous one in your position.
Ask questions even if they make you look or feel incompetent.
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to perform.
Don’t stop learning. Not because you have reached a leadership position that you have to stop learning and stop asking questions.
You do not want to reach these heights and find out that the positions is not made for you, that you are not capable of achieving success, job fulfillment, job satisfaction.
Understand that different skills will be demanded in your new role. What got you here won’t get you there.
Make sure that you really want this position and that it’s right for you.
Get a hold on your purpose. You will know if you are walking in your purpose by the amount of joy you experience while executing your purpose.
#10. Earn your respect
In your first few months:
Do not try to be liked but to be respected. This is an advice for mostly women who have to annoyingly smile and forcefully be polite.
Don’t be too quick to use your new authority or power.
Start taking responsibility for your actions.
Share your core values and set high expectations for performance, results, conduct, alignment and engagement.
Give respect. Find out where your role starts and ends. There is no need to step on anybody’s toes.
Last Words Of Advice!
The first months are the right time to set right habits.
Don’t stop growing and expect discomfort.
Remember that you are the one who makes the decision.
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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In Leadership Blindspots: How Successful Leaders Identify and Overcome the Weaknesses That Matter, 
According to 
As 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.
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