The Leadership Journey
A few weeks back, I became the interim Chief Executive Officer of a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). Pretty exciting stuff for a guy who just launched a leadership consultancy with the tagline, “Helping Individuals and Organizations Unleash Potential through Impactful Leadership”.
Over my professional career, I have enjoyed a disciplined progression to get where I am today. In other words, I was anything but leadership material when I first got started. I like to think of it as smelling the roses or coffee along the way but in reality it was taking every opportunity to learn from the many mistakes I would make along the way.
Over the years, I have been privileged to work with some excellent mentors and coaches. For their commitment to me and my growth, I am forever in their debt. But there were also those who were poor leaders and bad bosses who, for whatever reason had gotten promoted beyond their technical competence and were in roles of authority. While it sounds crazy, I am thankful to have worked with them.
The leadership journey is similar to life’s great journey. You learn valuable lessons from the good, bad and ugly. You take everything into account as you develop your brand and form your moral compass. Ultimately this will define who you are, your personal brand and value system.
The first step in a leadership journey is to capture what your values are or what you stand for. In other words, what gets you up each and every day and resides within the core of who you are. The question that follows is, “why would people want to follow me?”
As I get to walk the talk in my latest leadership role, I will apply the Impact Leadership Model at every engagement. It starts with solid values and vision and knowing what is important in leading people who depend on great leadership to help them be successful.
Whether you are just starting out or a twenty-five year professional, every interaction provides a unique opportunity to learn. As in Bob Burg’s and John David Mann’s, “The Go-Giver”, law number five is related to receptivity, “The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving”. May each of you receive until your value system is content.
Have an Impactful week!
