Day 11: People Skills: Leadership

Leadership is not only about leading others, it’s about leading oneself. It is what you do when nobody is watching. It doesn’t require you to be extroverted, though. In fact, you're more likely to be effective with others if you are more inclined towards introversion. Jim Collins pointed this out in his 2001 book, Good to Great. It has a kind of unseen impact on those with whom you associate. You can try, but you can’t hide it. It oozes out of you in everything you do. If you happen to occupy a leadership position on a sports team or within a business organisation, your leadership style helps create and maintain the culture. What is your core belief about people—are they self-motivated, energetic and self-guided, or do they need to be pushed around and made to do what’s necessary?We’re on Day 11 of 30 Days of Mental Skills, and for the next couple of sessions, we’ll be discussing why people skills are a core psychological skill of peak performers. You don’t exist in a vacuum after all. Almost everything you do in your work requires the interaction of other people, and how you view them matters. Even if you are a sole trader or lone artist, you will engage with others as you sell your work and engage with agents. So, what are their motivations? Are they selfish and lazy or are people good at heart and trying to do their best?Despite the narcissistic, self-image-oriented leaders that dominate not only business but many other areas of life, some stand out for the right reasons. Perhaps it’s better to say they stand out by not standing out. Fred Luthans and Bruce Avolio (2009) define Authentic Leadership as follows;Specifically, we define authentic leadership in organisations as a process that draws from both positive psychological capacities and a highly developed organizational context, which results in both greater self-awareness and self-regulated positive behaviours on the part of leaders and associates, fostering positive self-development. The authentic leader is confident, hopeful, optimistic, resilient, transparent, moral/ethical, future-oriented, and gives priority to developing associates to be leaders. The authentic leader is true to him/herself and the exhibited behaviour positively transforms or develops associates into leaders themselves. The authentic leader does not try to coerce or even rationally persuade associates, but rather the leader’s authentic values, beliefs, and behaviours serve to model the development of associates.So, how do we achieve or develop these positive traits of personality? Some people see others as objects to be manipulated and do a reasonable job pretending to care. Others couldn’t care less about your feelings and would steamroll their grandmother to get what they want. The best of us see other people as essential elements in their success, and consider the success of others equally valid as their own personal success. You can have all the material measures of achievement but if you can’t share it with others, what use is it?It appears that the conditions necessary for authentic leadership cannot be created at will. Instead, they seem to be the consequence of living a certain life. The self-awareness required for genuine concern for others and oneself comes from a willingness to address our shortcomings, reflect critically on our decisions, and test our own hypotheses of life. The skills required for successful operation in a dramatically changing environment come from learning who we are fundamentally and connecting to our intrinsic core self.Mental Skills Basics CourseSuffering stress and anxiety is not a prerequisite for success in self-employment–there's a better way. Mental skills provide you with the means of coping effectively with difficulty and achieving your goals. I created the Mental Skills Basics Course to introduce business leaders, self-employed individuals, freelancers, consultants, and small business owners to the psychological and emotional skills associated with success. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit peak.humanperformance.ie