Energized Leaders / Leaders / LLC Energize Your Leadership

Discover, Ignite, Break Through
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4835-5325-2
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 228 Seiten

Energize Your Leadership began as a collaboration among a group of leaders who met online with a dream to write a book about ways to ignite individual leadership. We came together around stories and experiences that had one theme in common: leaders were feeling sapped of energy. Somewhere along the way, these leaders had lost a sense of excitement-that feeling of being alive that powers everything you do. Some of us saw it in the workshops we were facilitating, others heard it from coaching clients; many of us noticed it in leadership at the organizations we worked at. No stranger to the phenomenon ourselves, we found that each of us had also experienced a moment or period of lack of excitement and energy. Wherever it was, we heard time and again how leaders were feeling overwhelmed, disengaged, and were searching for meaning. We saw that leadership was in need of a potent dose of energy. The focus of the book is to understand how energy is a key driver for our individual leadership success. Since energy is the force that propels and moves things forward, when we become energized, we feel empowered to lead with passion and resilience. Our approach to exploring leadership is to journey from the inside out, so leaders first grasp who they are and what they stand for before connecting to and influencing others. It begins with an authentic look at oneself and moves outwards to touch the lives of those we encounter in our personal and professional worlds.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Energized Leaders, LLC

Leaders, Energized

LLC,

Quy, Larae

Bazin, Cynthia

Dougherty, Carol

Thurlbeck, John

Smith, Barry

Alli,

Leseproben

1: Energize Your Values “Whose life am I going to live?” It’s a question I would confront many times in my early career, beginning the moment I went off to college. In high school, I had taken those career aptitude tests that identified which jobs would be a good fit for someone with my personality and interests. My intuition told me they were spot on. Yet, instead of pursuing one of those career paths, I allowed my choices to be driven by the well-meaning, and seemingly wiser, voices of those around me. Intellectually, they made a lot more sense than what I intuitively felt would be a good fit for me. I have no doubt that those well-meaning voices had my best interests at heart. I consider myself fortunate to have been surrounded by people who truly loved me, believed in me, and cared about my future. For a while, their guidance seemed to be working. My job was going very well. I had the time, energy and funds to enjoy doing things I loved to do. By all accounts I had a great life and a successful career. Then one day a deceptively simple conversation jolted me awake. A friend at work shared over lunch that he was leaving the company to go to chiropractic school. Even though we were only in our twenties, it seemed like an incredibly gutsy move, one that required courage and insight. When I asked him what drove his decision, he explained that he wanted his life to be “more than about crunching numbers and getting promotions.” He genuinely wanted to help people lead healthier lives. I didn’t sleep much that night. Although I really enjoyed my job, his words somehow re-awakened my desire for my work and my life to have more meaning. It became clear that at some point I had surrendered my quest for meaning, and had instead chosen to follow the path that had been laid out before me for as long as I could remember: go to school and get a good corporate job. “You can rise to the level I could never attain,” my father had said, “because I did not get that degree.” I was the first person in my family to graduate from college and with it came great hope and possibility for my entire family. Over the next 10 years I explored many alternative careers, but I was continually frustrated that I still seemed unable to find the “right path.” Did such a thing even exist? Perhaps I was expecting too much. I wasn’t miserable or rudderless, and I didn’t regret any of the choices I had made up until this point. It was just that something had been missing — the spark that made me want to seize the day, every day. After years of searching for the “right” career path I had one of those aha moments: the meaning and satisfaction I was searching for had nothing to do with what I did for a living. I realized that the source of meaning and satisfaction came from the inside out, not the outside in. It wasn’t a career I was seeking, but rather a compass to help me navigate. The thing I had been searching for was within my grasp the whole time — the compass was my values. In that moment I had a clear choice: I could make my life one entirely of my own making or continue letting others drive my choices. I wanted my life to be my own, and I realized that the key was to get in touch with what really mattered to me. Fortunately, I had a strong personal code of ethics so my values at the level of my integrity were clear. Yet there was another set of values I needed to explore — the values that were the source of my motivations, behavior and satisfaction. It was in discovering these values that opened the door to understanding what gave me both meaning and satisfaction. The clearer I became about what these values were, the more energized I became about my future. I now had the tools to invent my life and career from this moment forward with confidence. I could find a way to make the difference I wanted to make in the world, and to live my whole life in a way that truly energized me. LESSONS LEARNED Only I can identify my values Ultimately, this quest led me to realize that the real source of success and satisfaction comes down to one thing: living 100% true to your values in everything you do. This requires awareness, willingness and courage. Only you (not others) can identify and name your values. They must resonate on the deepest level of your being. When you do the work to distinguish your core values they will serve as a compass – an invaluable tool you can rely on to guide you in making decisions that bring you the most meaning, sense of purpose and satisfaction. Distinguishing and learning to use your values as a compass can take time. Don’t rush it or expect to create it overnight. This requires inquiry and self-discovery, after all. Take it day by day, and step by step. Over time I began to find that if I focused just on the step in front of me, trusting that the next step would reveal itself, I couldn’t help but travel in the right direction. As long as I made my choices based on my values, I would be putting myself on that “right path” I had been seeking. Of course, I made mistakes and had setbacks along the way. That’s all part of the process. Sometimes I got off track by unwittingly following the advice of others even though I knew better. Yet by being aware, I learned from my mistakes, corrected course, and got better at remembering to check in with my inner compass. Being clear on what matters most energizes me The ultimate litmus test for whether the choices I made were best serving me was the effect those choices had on my energy. When I was not experiencing being energized for a seemingly long stretch of time, my values became the compass for adjusting my course until that energy and enthusiasm for my work returned. In those times when I wanted to quit I looked to my core values to determine whether I simply needed to step up and charge through or whether it was time to correct course. Once you can see clearly how values-driven decisions in your past led to an energized state, you have opened the door to exploring how you can leverage that awareness to consciously design your life to consistently experience being energized. My values can optimize my contribution to my career and the world The more I tuned in, I realized that my values drove my emotional responses to the world around me. I was able to design my career and my life to leverage the best of what I had to offer. This understanding has allowed me to choose how, where, and with whom I work and live in a way that has increased my sense of satisfaction in everything I do. Said another way, clarifying my values was the key to aligning who I am, what matters most to me, and the difference I want to make in the world. It’s important to remember that even when you live true to your values, you will experience challenges and obstacles. In fact, it can take great courage and fortitude to honor your values when the people around you, no matter how well-meaning, are pressing you to choose otherwise. Making choices based on your core values can give you the fortitude to work things through to get to the other side of whatever obstacles you face. That alone is a valuable form of energy that is essential to fueling your success and satisfaction in life and work. Living true to your core values is not always the easy path, yet ultimately it is a path that allows you to create a life of meaning, satisfaction, purpose and abundant energy. KEY QUESTIONS Which of your values are satisfied by your current job or career, and which are not? What could you do to satisfy a value that is not satisfied in your life? If you were to bring your whole self (with all your values) to work tomorrow, what might you do differently? ACTION STEPS Your core values are the elements in your life that you find most important, those that must be satisfied for you to feel that your life has meaning, that you’re centered, and that you have energy and optimism. In determining your core values, it’s helpful to look at your past decisions and experiences. Take an inventory Remember a work or life situation in which you experienced being energized by what you were doing. Write the story of what you were doing, why you were doing it, and what made it so energizing. Reflect on the story and identify the three values — those that are most important to you — that were satisfied through this experience. Repeat this exercise every day for the next seven days. Enlist the help and perspective of others Ask someone who believes in you and is supportive of your dreams to give feedback on your stories. Read them your stories and discuss together how your core values drove your choices, and the impact they had on your satisfaction and energy. Others may see things that you can’t, and give you new insights. You can also ask someone who knew you as a child or young adult to tell you a story about when they witnessed you being the most joyful and energized. Build your compass You may notice in these exercises that certain values come up again and again. Pay special attention to these — they are your primary driving values, and figure most prominently on your values as a compass. They will give you the best guidance for making work and life decisions that give you meaning, purpose and a consistent sense of being energized. By: Susan Mazza www.RandomActsofLeadership.com “The choice to live true to your values in everything you do is...