I find social media and follower mentality to be a bunch of bull shit. If you are genuinely looking to excel yourself and your team you should have 2 main goals.
1- Create more leaders.
2- Create a community in which everyone feels valued and able to speak passionately.
When we look to be “the smartest and most interesting person” in the room we signal to others are lack of self worth and inability to build others up. And I purposefully put that in air quotes because there will always be a smarter person in the room, in their opinion.
It is amazing how many so called “leaders” talk a tremendous amount more than they listen, focus on themselves instead of their people and lack the “how to” of self reflection. Especially as men we usually come from a place of overpowering and lack of understanding.
How much more powerfully could we men show up as leaders if we had deep self trust and reflection? With these 2 skills we can naturally instill confidence and growth in our team and family.
When we look to create more leaders around us instead of proving we are the leader we build everyone around us up so we can all succeed together. With this mentality we can instill deep trust and comfort with those around us so they feel more creative and confident.
To create community we need to focus on how we can create value for our community and invigorate a space of open communication. As a man in the leadership space the burden is no longer to drive the community or work environment forward with an iron fist. Clearly now the most effective way to lead is to show humility, trust and compassion for those around us so they feel like they have a leader that is by their side to help them not looking over their shoulder to discipline them.
Now here is a simple way to put this into action. An employee, team mate or family member does something that irritates you and fails to meet the standards you have created with your community.
Option A – Get upset at how stupid it is that they clearly chose the wrong action and tell them they better do it correct or else.
Option B – Calmly approach the individual and ask them what happened. Listen to their perspective on the matter, see if anything is behind the situation that has caused emotions and then ask them if they need support in creating a new pattern.
You be the judge.
