Being the Leader in your Life
My name is Sally Klauss and I’m a Life Coach specializing in Management and Supervision.| Being the Leader in your Life |
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Sunday May 2, 2010 5pm Pacific Many students come into my classroom with enough skills and abilities to be great leaders. Typically they only lack the knowledge to stitch everything together. I have the great pleasure and privilege to see them blossom over the course of several weeks and the results are always the same. What they learn in the process of developing their leadership ability spills over to their personal life. What they start to demonstrate is a new found confidence that transcends their jobs and gives them access to the part of them that "just knows" what to do. This is why I love teaching. Being in a leadership role is an awesome responsibility. For the most part, it is a rewarding experience. When compared to our staff, we get to have a say in things, we are in on things that are confidential, and we have autonomy in many areas of our jobs. But a leadership role can be very lonesome. Making the decision of who to lay off or terminate, who will not earn an increase, who gets passed over for the promotion. These types of decisions don't tend to attract a lot of participants so you are left to your own devices. Many leaders avoid making the tough calls and they put them off as long as they can. These tough calls happen in our personal lives as well. How do you handle them? Do you avoid them or do you do what's right and accept everything that goes with it? Being mindful about the tough calls is the mark of a leader and having the confidence to face the criticism is how you know you've got what it takes. Some of the hardest decisions I've had to make in my career made me feel like I was all alone. It was my call. I couldn't blame the decision on my boss or use the convenience of a slow down when I knew I had to let someone go. Those tough decisions helped shape my leadership style and taught me more about leadership than the fun part of my job, and they still do to this day. I have always prided myself on being fair. I have used that value to help me make decisions and to navigate the emotions that go with making the tough calls. For me, focusing on the bigger picture and not making it about me makes the tough decision a little bit more tolerable. I've been a leader for more than 20 years and I've faced many challenges. Some I was ready for, some I didn't see coming, but the one thing that has always remained my compass has been the ability to be fair. This is how I make decisions in my personal life as well. Leadership ability is easier when it's coming from your core. When it's something that you know so well that you don't need to seek approval or gain acceptance. Confidence in your choices helps you make better choices in the future. Where is your confidence? How do you handle the tough calls? When do you feel all alone in the decision making process? All of these life skills can help you develop your leadership abilities so that being the leader in your life simply becomes a function of working from your core and following what you truly value as a person. |
