and skills are very useful, they are not the key factors. Great systems without great spirit do not deliver. Skills without intelligence – doing the right thing at the right time in the right way – can be harmful.
Experience shows that when an individual has developed objective awareness, focus (the ability to make quality choices) and personal consistency (the alignment of their attitude and actions with their best understanding) effective action naturally and effortlessly follows.
The single capability which allows you to make those things work in your life is the attention you pay to apply them toyourself instead of expecting others to do it. Although this sounds obvious, this is the very point where we often fail as it appears to us it would be far easier if people could behave the way we want them to rather than us trying to change our own habits. But as we said, it ‘appears’ only, as it is ultimately much more arduous to control another individual than to control oneself. This belief is a powerful delusions which costs us enormous amounts of time, energy, and often well being, when we do not recognize it.
The simple and ultimate truth about leadership – and this is valid whether you are a team, an organizational or a ‘familial’ leader – is that people will not do what you tell them to do – but they will do what they see you doing. Leaders are walking and talking manuals of behavior. You primarily lead by example and because you are not perfect, this implies you have to be very honest with yourself. It has been said and repeated; it has gone around the world, but Gandhi’s mantra is definitely worth recalling again because it is the bottom line: you have to ‘be the change you want to see in the world’.
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December 18th, 2011 → 9:43 pm
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