What it really means to be a leader

Are you using your leadership qualities in your role as an operator? How can you use these assets to get you to your next best self?

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Today, we are talking about what it really means to be a leader. Each I have doubled down on my gifts of leadership, they have paid dividends. I wanted to share what it means to be a leader and help you see how that applies to your career.

Leadership

Leadership is a special commodity that every one of us has.

Some of the characteristics of leadership are:

Taking ownership
Being resourceful
Taking pride in your work
Being prepared
Being organized
Being a team player
Having integrity

There are many ways to be a leader within your own life, but today we are going to focus on what it looks like to be a leader inside of a business.

“No one is investing in me to be a leader, it’s always up to me to notch myself up…”

We have a value-packed training coming up, called the Implementation Escape Plan. It is three completely free value-packed sessions designed to guide you to step into the next level.

The Trifecta of Leadership

When you are a leader, a benefit is that you are operating as the highest version of yourself. When this happens, you are getting paid more, you are happy and fulfilled in the work that you are doing, and morale goes up because of the people you come in contact with.

We should all be investing in the continuous search for greater leadership as well as figuring out what may be holding you back.

The trifecta of leadership is leading yourself, leading your people, and leading your projects. These are the three lenses that I teach though in the Director of Operations (DOO) certification program. The combination of these three areas allows you to step into your next best self.

Leading Yourself

We are all going to go through seasons of hardship, and when this happens, know that your leadership will be different. In this case you will not be your next best self, so sometimes you need to focus on yourself.

“You need to focus on yourself before you can show up as a leader in someone else’s business.”

You need confidence in your knowledge and abilities, and be in a continuous state of learning.

You need self compassion because you will hit a limit at some point, and you also need to be aware that you will battle perfectionism and you need to get to a place where you identify that you are doing the very best you can.

Finally, the last piece of leading yourself comes down to being solution-oriented. As an operator, you are solution oriented; you love a good solution and a project plan, and this is what makes operators truly unique.

Leading Your People

As a DOO and a leader, you will be surrounded by people, and you may be directly or inadvertently leading them.

Other people lean on you because you have the gift of leadership, and you will need to make the shift from a “yes, ma’am” to a “yes, maybe” mentality. This means that we are often in a people-pleasing mentality but have to make the shift to a leadership “yes, maybe” mentality in which you are going to consider all of the options and possibilities..

When you are leading a leader, the “yes,maybe” mentality will take you far, and it will allow you to listen with intent to others and have the time and space to analyze it.

Another part of leading people is the balance of both managing up and managing down. This takes two different skill sets. Ultimately, this will lead to great satisfaction among those you have influence over.

Part of leadership that you will never be able to escape is having difficult conversations. This communication skill set will be critical, and it will be stretched.

Leading Your Projects

As an operator you will have lots of projects going on, and you will need to know how to show up when everything is going right, as well as wrong. This is what really characterizes what a leader is.

“It’s easy to be a leader when everything is going right… the operators who thrive when things go wrong have really strong leadership skills.”

As you make changes, really think through how it affects each and every team member. Something that may seem like a big win for the company may affect another part of the organization in a big way and a thriving leader will think through this before the change is implemented.

Leadership will bring a ton of satisfaction to yourself, and when you are thriving as a leader you:

are paid more
are in roles that truly fit
have a strong connection to your leader
are a strategist

This should all generate joy and fulfillment in what you do for a living.

“When you are the most personally satisfied with who you are and where you are in your career, you are fulfilled because you are exercising the highest version of you.”

Don’t forget to sign up for the Implementation Escape Plan!

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