To be a leader you have to lead yourself first. This is one of the trademarks of true Leaders. Every time you’re with someone who manages himself/herself perfectly under any circumstances you know you’re talking someone big. It’s hard to resist responding back to a bad intentioned comment, or rude words, and it’s even harder if you’re in a position to lead, where it’s easy to be prey of your ego.
It’s difficult to connect with your values and elaborate the most appropiate answer to respond in certain circumstances. But you have to do that in order to become a great leader. Read that again: to become a GREAT LEADER. I’m not talking about being a leader only, but a great one. The higher your expectations, the higher you’ll get.
I’ll share with you a couple of things you should manage in the best possible way in order to lead yourself.
Handle Your Emotions
Sometimes it’s Ok to show your emotions and express your feelings freely to let your team know who you are and how you feel. But there are times when not showing your emotions is the right thing to do. Specially when showing your emotions lowers your team morale or affects them badly.
The key is to think if showing your emotions will be good for your team or not. That means, you have to be “big enough” to consider your team before you consider yourself.
Manage Your Time
To become a great leader you need to manage your time. A day has only 24 hours, you can’t put anymore time in it. So, if you a have a really tight schedule, you should start considering to stop doing the less valuable things of your agenda, and passing that tasks to someone who can help you. The other way is simply stop doing the less important things in your life. Remember, a day has only 24 hours, you can’t strecht it. It’s fixed.
LEADERSHIP ACTIONS
1. Commit yourself to wait at least a couple of seconds before responding to anything, in that way you will have a chance to not answer the first thing that comes up to your mind. And you will show “self-control”. This is specially useful in complex situations. 2. Take a look at your agenda and try to delegate, better yet,eliminate activities that suck up your time, and energy.
Don’t forget: To be a leader you have to lead yourself first.And by the way, I think it’s easier to juggle.
Be Alert, Be A Leader.
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Fawzia Gulsha