INSIGHTS (on leadership/self-leadership)
Most of us intuitively understand the importance of remaining calm in the face of adversity. Emotions are likely already running high – you don’t want to throw gas on the fire. You’ve heard about the importance of being the calmest person in the room, especially if you’re the leader. Don’t jump to conclusions prematurely or make uninformed assumptions. Speak in a controlled tone and act with a steady, measured confidence. We know all of this, right?
Here’s something you might not know about the power of staying calm when setbacks arise. When you do, a magical thing happens.
You keep everyone focused on what must be done versus what might happen.
Think about the energy difference between these two options. Imagine a room full of people focused on what must be done. Now imagine the energy in a room of people focused on what might happen. Two entirely different vibes.
So, Stay Calm and Vibe On (with the vibe that you want to foster)
IMPERFECTIONS (a mistake many make)
In 1549, revered artist Michelangelo wrote a letter to the king of Spain in which he revealed his method for making his breathtaking sculptures. Other artists of the day would create with a process of adding on layer upon layer of clay, molding it, shaping it, sculpting each layer until they got to their finished product. Not Michelangelo. He worked by a process not of adding on, but of taking away. He would start with a dense block of granite and slowly carve away everything that the statue was not, chiseling away all the debris and distractions to free the beauty that had always lain deep inside the confines of the rock.
And so it is with us. Over the course of a lifetime, we get caught up doing, earning, providing, striving, as layer upon layer of distraction, responsibility, and distortion builds up, until one day we look back on our lives and say, “My god, what happened to the beautiful statue I was intended to be? How did it get so buried?”
You free your inner-statue once again when you take up the chisel – in the form of reflective questions that enable excavation:
• What really matters most to me and how do I return to serving that?
• When am I at my happiest, and how do I do more of that?
• What do I expect of myself, and how do I hold truer to that?
• Who do I want to be, and how do I reconnect with that?
My point? It’s time to carve away the layers of distractions and self-imposed burdens and everything that you’re not. Assure that you avoid one of the greatest of human tragedies, as articulated by poet Oliver Wendell Holmes: “Many people die with their music still inside them.”
IMPLEMENTATION (one research-backed strategy, tip, or tool)
Even those that prioritize skill-building in their life can have difficulty discerning exactly what skill they should focus on building. There are too many lists to count cajoling you to focus on this skill over that skill, to be proficient in this first versus that, if you want to be successful.
Here’s a universally underrated skill everyone can easily build, but that few actually do. Those that do can even stand out, with only a little intention required. It’s a choice, as much as a skill:
Be dependable.
In everything you do. Show up on time. Do what you say you’re going to do. Deliver what you said you would when you said you would. Always be of help. Go the extra mile, even when you aren’t asked to. It’s a lost art. Something no longer taken for granted because it’s not granted consistently enough. It will be noticed. Research shows that the number one thing that creates the unique concoction of trust, camaraderie, and likability, is dependability.
So, be dependable, and you’ll be far from expendable.
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