Clarity is Your Leadership Foundation
"Clarity is the foundational piece for all leaders. Without clarity there is no direction."
Yet, clarity is often the most overlooked piece for leaders across any level, whether you’re a new and emerging leader, or a seasoned executive. What I’ve found is that we rarely take the time to ask;
‘What kind of leader do I want to be?'
'What kind of leader am I?'
'What are my personal values?' and
'Why are they important?’
I often say that leadership is an inside-out job. This is very true. Before you can lead others, you need to be able to lead yourself. You need to ask yourself those questions, and find the answers. And once you’ve found the answers, once you’ve gained clarity, you need to be able to implement the changes that will allow you to be the kind of leader you do want to be.
Your Clarity Model To gain clarity you need to understand certain things about yourself, namely:
Your purpose, and how you can create or build on that purpose in your work and life.
Your values and ethics.
Your strengths and weaknesses
Your internal and external motivations.
Your emotional states, both positive and negative, and how those impact on your ability to lead.
Understanding these elements is a process that will not be done in a moment. It’s a lifelong process, and a lifelong journey. Each time you’re presented with a new challenge, a new circumstance or a new role, you’ll gain more and more information (or more and more clarity) about yourself—about what is important to you and what is not. At the end of the day clarity is much more than just a thought exercise. It involves effort, discipline and a firm commitment to your own learning and self-leadership. This includes consciously improving your own leadership skills, day in and day out. You can do this by:
Understanding your own strengths and weaknesses and developing the tools to maximise your strengths and optimise your weaknesses.
Learning about your own leadership style and how to use that to its best.
Developing your passion and focusing your energy to pursue that passion.
Creating a methodology for effective goal setting with well planned execution.
Learning to fail and move on.
Understanding how you inspire others.
Finding your higher purpose.
A courageous leader is able to distinguish between disconnected and connected ideas. A leader will be able to recognise which ideas have a clear goal and what challenges can arise in achieving it with greater feeling of clarity. Until next time, Eat the Frog, Get the Bird, Be the Worm, and ask yourself, what kind of leader do you want to be?
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