Case study #17: Lead Yourself Before You Lead Others
Personal leadership is as important as team leadership.
Who do you lead?
There is a catch. Do you lead yourself? Or do you lead others? Do these two go together? Or one is more important than the other?
Leadership is often associated with team management and working in the corporate world. Yet, it is not a discipline reserved for seasoned managers with 20+ years of experience.
Leadership is also an intimate relationship you have with yourself. Yet, that is something you need to find out. Like Tom did when he worked with his team. At one point, he realized he lost himself in the process.
Tom loved his team. He would give them his soul, help, and countless hours. He cared so much that he always wanted people to feel comfortable with the company’s decisions and tried to protect them from big changes. He was breathing for his team.
Yet, at some point, he noticed he felt burned out. He realized he stopped believing in the company’s direction. He felt anxious about where it all went. Times were too uncertain. He inevitably asked himself: “And what now?”
How can you lead a team if you barely cope with changes and decisions yourself?
Leadership & emotional intelligence
Leadership and emotional intelligence go hand in hand. Daniel Goleman calls the emotional dimension of leadership ‘primal leadership’:
In 2002, he interestingly pointed out something that resonates these days, too:
Question: Is primal leadership particularly important in these uncertain times?
Answer: In a climate of uncertainty primal leadership becomes more important than ever, because people need a leader who lends an air of certainty, or at least conviction, a sense of “this is where we’re heading these days,” at a time when fears and anxieties can overtake them. All of this is particularly important because of the relationship—which is neurologically based—between emotions and attention and cognition. That is, the ability to get work done depends on our emotions not being out of control. A leader has to speak to those often- unstated fears along the way in order to help people keep them under control. - Ivey Business Journal
How do you help others feel in control when you’re losing your ground? Managers, like Tom, often feel they have no control over decisions made above them. They try to make it work for their teams.
It is not an easy position to be in.
Leadership is the art of leading others. But first, you have to lead yourself, to feel comfortable with what’s coming your way. When you digest challenges, you can help others.
Imagine you’re in a plane with a lot of turbulences, and before helping other passengers, you have to put an oxygen mask on yourself.
Tom lost direction. His team felt it, and a sense of nervousness was creeping around.
How do you start leading yourself?
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