When I am coaching another business executive, I always ask them the question: “What are you doing to take care of, and grow yourself?” In other words, as they say in the airline safety briefing: “Are you putting your own mask on first?”
How are you taking care of yourself so that you’re the very best version of you every day? What are you doing to develop yourself and improve your leadership toolkit?
Invariably, senior executives will always tell me that their focus is on their team, their development and supporting them.
Yes, that is important however it is equally important that every leader in the organization has a plan to continuously improve their own leadership skills (I won’t get into the other part of Putting Your Own Mask on First – which is what are you doing to live a discipline life of proper hydration, nutrition, exercise and rest. Saving that for another time).
Leadership is a skill. We are not born leaders. It is a skill we develop, like learning to be an Accountant, Engineer, Marketer, etc.
Every leader, no matter what role they are in or how young or old they are, needs to develop the mindset that ‘School is NEVER Out’ when it comes to their Leadership Practice. I call it; “Leadership Kaizen”.
Yes, I know you are busy, and you are running a very important business where every minute of every day matters. I hear it all the time from leaders I coach everywhere. Yet, here are the facts… When I sit down and analyze a leader’s efficiency on any given day, I see that they are about 20 to 25% efficient (which translates into effectiveness as well). Developing your Leadership Kaizen helps with:
Leadership Kaizen development options?
Remember, Ralph Waldo Emerson said in 1917; “The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.” It is true today more than ever!
