As I continue down the invigorating path of exploring and practicing Dare to Lead concepts, I look for parallels in my own leadership. Then I seize opportunities to go even deeper.
This week, it's about Brene Brown's statement:
Daring leaders who live into their values are never silent about hard things.
Just like most of her work, there is so much to unpack in this one sentence!
As I make the connections between Dare to Lead and my own leadership,
I see the middle of the sentence as my starting point:
"...who live into their values..."
What does it mean to live into your values?
This is work I revisit often.
What are my values?
How am I living into them?
Why do I find it important to ask myself these types of questions?
I think I can best explain it through a belief I hold about leadership:
Know Yourself to Lead Others
The more I know myself and give myself opportunities to reflect and remember who I am as a leader, the more effective and impactful my leadership becomes. It makes things better on a whole lot of levels:
When I recognize my own strengths, vulnerability, and humanity, I'm more open to seeing the same in the people and projects I lead. As a result, I'm a kinder leader.
When I stop to get clear about what's most important to me from multiple angles - personally, professionally, culturally, and on and on - I'm braver about speaking up, even when it's hard, and I'm more clear in my communication. I know where I stand, and I know when and how I need to take a stand.
When I give myself time to check in and reflect, I'm also creating time to practice on myself what I preach to others. Prioritizing time and space for this practice creates resourceful thinking, inspiration to shape my next ideas, and energy to challenge myself to keep improving.
Knowing yourself to lead others is an ongoing, consistent practice that is essential to my own leadership development, and to the development of the leaders I coach.
Brene Brown's List of Values is one of the resources I regularly use as I know myself to lead others. You can download it here.
If you'd like additional resources on this topic, send me a message, and I'd be more than happy to share!