Course 2, Discussion 2: Lead by example
Great Leadership, unsurprisingly, starts with yourself!
Practice what you preach. Lead by example. I am sure all of you heard these phrases. But why are they so iconic?
Because the journey starts with the first step and you are the person who is taking the initiative to lead -- Start a journey! So, you are the one who needs to take the first step before expecting others to do it.
To start with leading yourself, close your eyes and visualize two people: someone who inspired and encouraged you to be like them, and someone who discouraged you to be not like them.
Then, write down the good qualities of the person who inspired you as well as the qualities of the second person. You do not have to be specific with the details. Just a bulleted list.
Now, compare the list to yourself. Note the good qualities you have, the bad qualities you have, and give yourself a rating on a scale of 1-10. What we just did is identified your strengths and weaknesses and what you need in order to lead yourself. This allows you to create self-awareness.
Self-awareness is key to leading yourself in the right direction. But, leading yourself is not easy. Just being self-aware isn't enough. It's igniting the spark but not enough to catch the fire. To catch the fire, you need to be persistent with your practice, which is regular reflection. Be consistent with monitoring your efforts and holding yourself accountable.
You can't effectively lead others until you know how to lead yourself. That happens through Self-Observant Leadership: when you deeply understand your identity, compare it to your reputation (how others experience you) and then make meaning of the observations, and choose to adapt.
Exercise:
✒️ What did you learn about yourself through the given exercise?
✒️ Respond to one of your peers in this thread
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I learned through this exercise that I am organised, fair, positive thoughtful and dislike laziness or disorganisation.
@Tracey12345 oh that’s so interesting! Being organized, positive and thoughtful. I’m glad you learned something new about yourself the way I did!😊
@Hope What did you learn about yourself through the given exercise?
I learnt that there are many characteristics I have that I don’t want to have, for an example being loud. And also how I have strengths I haven’t quite recognized before doing this exercise, like being courageous. It’s true that we have to lead first by becoming a person we ourselves would be inspired to follow. That’s a great way to understand exactly in which ways to improve ourselves.
@Snowpudding So true and I really appreciate that you shared your self reflection with the team, that is an important leadership skill! Thank you !
@Maebyb Oh I forgot to answer the question, I learned that I do possess some leadership skills such as being organized, being early, being respectful of others.