Practice Centered Leadership

There are different definitions of centered leadership out there, and each has merit. I highly recommend reading the book "Centered Leadership" by Joanna Barsh. She takes a different view on centered leadership and yet it's harmonious with what I call centered leadership. It's a good read, filled with instantly usable advice on becoming a better leader.

Here is a brief summary of my idea of centered leadership:

Centered leadership requires constant development in both the skills of leading and the character of leadership.

Centered leaders maintain the core of their character while selecting and using the leadership skills necessary for each specific situation.

Centered, high performance leadership achieves positive, goal oriented results while leading with clarity, courage, creativity and compassion. Centered leaders are dynamic. They find the point of focus, the center, of each moment to be able to operate with a sense of balance and well being.

They identify their core area of strength (and personality preference) while developing their opportunities for improvement. Centered leaders also draw on the strengths and talents of others, recognizing and encouraging diversity.

The strengths and values of centered leadership include:Courage: Practicing the strength and character it takes to face and act on meaningful challenges in support of people and purpose.

Compassion: Caring for other people, their feelings, needs and dreams.

Creativity: Distilling and developing ideas into innovative products and services. Keeping an open mind and exploring new territory constantly.

Clarity: Refining, improving, analyzing, and covering details clearly, openly, honestly, and with absolute integrity. Reducing ambiguity and eliminating hidden agendas.

Centering: Staying focused and grounded in the face of conflict, stress, and challenge.
This is our definition of Centered Leadership. It draws on decades of research on the topic of leadership as well as the wealth of information available using various personality sorters.

Slightly different, but I do keep Joanna Barsh's book close to my desk. As we say in improv, it doesn't have to be an either/or decision -- it can be both/and.

My main tweet of the day is this:

We feel whatever we practice, so why not practice clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion?

Some days that takes patience. Some days that takes development. In the end, we will reap the results of our character. Building strong, balanced, centered character leads to better results and happier feelings. Isn't that worth working for?

-- Douglas Brent Smith

If you're interested in learning more about how to be a more centered leader, Front Range Leadership takes a centered leadership approach in our work of training supervisors for success. Learn more about our workshops here and our teleclasses here.

Comments

At the Root

Why would a happy person ever harm anyone? I don't think that they would. When we are happy, content, and at peace any effort to disturb or harm anyone else will just disturb or harm ourselves as well. When we experience someone trying to disturb or harm us we can be sure that they are already in pain. Fighting back might seem valid, but will it help? What if we helped heal the pain at the root? Difficult people did not become difficult randomly. Something, in need of healing, caused it. -- doug smith

Learn Beyond The Point Of Discomfort

Do you always learn things the first time you try them? If you do, please teach me how you do that! Learning takes the right attitude, the right tools, and the right repetition of trials. We fall off that bike the first time we get on it. We hit a sour note the first time we pick up a horn. We learn by degrees, even when we earn a degree. We seldom learn anything perfectly the first time we try it. Or the second, or the third... Yet we so often stop at the point of competency. That's when the learning has just begun! There is a huge range of learning ahead of and beyond competency. It's the road to mastery. We do not need to master everything. But imagine the joy of mastering what matters to you most. Wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't that be life-enhancing? And (most important) won't that take more learning than you've already done? -- Doug Smith

Thriving Teams

Thriving leaders thrive as their teams thrive. It's a partnership. It's a deal. It takes constant support and service to sustain a high performance team. Thriving leaders recruit with the enthusiasm they show for their team. People can tell when your team is cohesive, cooperative, and collaborative and people crave that for themselves. Create and support a team that supports each other and others will rally to the cause. You have no weak links. You have no poor performers. You have no superstars. You do have team members who need your guidance and support. That's the role of a leader. -- doug smith

Not Everything Is Possible

If what you want is impossible, want something else. -- doug smith

It's About The Cause

The art of leadership is keeping the ego out of the play. It's not about you. It's never about you. As a leader, it's about the cause. -- doug smith

Work Your Way There

Big goals need little goals to build momentum. -- doug smith

Of Course It's Not Easy

It's not the problem that upsets you, it's not getting what you want. Get clarity about what you REALLY want, and then work relentlessly to get it. If it was easy, how much fun would it REALLY be? -- doug smith

Money Isn't Everything

The profit motive is a poor substitute for genuine value. Money isn't everything. It's not even the most important thing. Oh, sure it's incredibly important. As a person who has many times wondered if there would be enough cash to pay the bills, I have come to respect mightily the value of money. But money is transactional. People are more than transactions. What we value most is more than money can buy, is more than a transaction, is a character of depth and peacefulness, and yes, love that is earned, not bought. Think about that for a minute. -- doug smith

Enjoy AND Improve

Do you enjoy success? If that seems like a silly question (Of COURSE I enjoy success!) think about it from another perspective. Sometimes we can taper down our enjoyment and appreciation of something because we know it's not perfect yet, and how can we be happy if it's not perfect? I do that somethings. It's not helpful. OF COURSE it's not perfect: nothing else and nothing ever will be. There are no perfect people, processes, performances, or plan. If we wait for perfection, we'll just keep waiting (and probably without gaining ground...) Let's do both. Let's enjoy our current level of success and achievement while also working to improve it. Performance must constantly improve, AND we can enjoy our exiting improvements. -- doug smith

Love Leadership

Can you be a high performance leader without loving your gig? I've know some great leaders in my life. Some were happy. Some were not. The ones who seemed to live the happiest of lives not only worked harder than anyone else around them (the price of leadership) they also loved what they did. They loved their field of play, their work, their calling, with an unrelenting passion. When a leader can give all there is to give out of love, it makes the hard work and service of leadership more than worth it -- it makes it a joy. Leaders do need more than love. They do need ambition, hard work, discipline, education, and sometimes a little luck comes in hand. But they do need love. Love isn't always enough, but it always belongs in the mix. -- doug smith

High Performance Leadership

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