INsight/ Energized for Grit
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Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash
Manila, 30 October 2019 — When grit leaves you drained, you need a boost of energy.
If you want to become a leader who influences positive changes in your workplace and beyond, you need to have the energy to get going and—importantly—to keep going. After an enthusiastic start, most people give up somewhere along the way.
To be successful, you need grit. There’s no doubt about that. In the Big Five, a well-known psychometric, the ability to persevere and deliver is called conscientiousness. Leaders need a good dose of that, which is why employers look for it in their staff assessments.
With a 21st-century perspective, while we are ready to accept wisdom about grit that is supported by research, we want to find hacks to help us work faster and smarter whenever possible. We’re looking for smart ways to grow our leadership and the grit we need.
What did the classical Chinese philosophers and Einstein have in common?
They liked to use a perspective that it is energy that matters most. That way of thinking resonates with me, and I’ve been exploring how we can apply it to the grit that we need as leaders to succeed.
Here are three keys to success for you to practice grit in a way that’s smarter, faster, and consuming less energy:
Alignment
The first key is alignment. Staying on track with your leadership efforts is much harder if you haven’t cleared your internal energy blockages.
The way you think and see the world can cause you to get internally conflicted without realizing it. I frequently see this happen in coaching clients, for example when they let empathy for others grow to the extent that they forget their need to protect personal boundaries. Energetically, this can be a recipe for emotional stress and even depression.
Leaders I coach to Work In All Colors discover how to re-energize themselves when they resolve their internal energy blockages that were caused by one or more misalignments in their colors profile. As a result, they rapidly gain confidence, keep on track with their leadership growth, and are able to deliver results faster.
Habits
The second key is about building and using habits.
Reinventing the wheel (of leadership efforts) is tedious and consumes so much energy. That’s why leaders make an effort to build strong habits.
The most important step is the first one, to start. After that, just keep repeating your action and don’t get discouraged when you fail along the way. Just keep going.
After several days or weeks, habit formation accelerates when our mind has recognized the pattern and comes to our aid with conscious and subconscious support.
This famous quote attests to the power of habits we build to support our leadership efforts.
“People don’t decide their future. They decide their habits and their habits decide their future.” – F.M. Alexander
Community
The third key is about consciously building a support system for your leadership, including a community of fellow leaders you trust to help you when the going gets tough and to give you effective feedback.
Energetically, it’s much harder to overcome leadership challenges all by yourself. Why would you, when you can grow a team of leaders around you, to work with you?
Beyond alignment, habits, and community, there are more keys to explore, yet these three can power up your leadership with more positive energy, starting now.
If you’re interested to grow your leadership in a smart way using alignment, habits, and 21st-century skills, our community of leaders may be a good fit for you. Visit Grow3Leaders to request your invitation.
Joining is free of charge—not free of commitment.