DEVELOPMENT = GROWTH

Jay’s tips and tricks for learning leadership

Column by JAY PERRY

In our work with developing great leaders, we find there are certain core competences that are required for leadership. The challenge to most of us is that we haven’t had any formal training or even exposure to how to build these things within ourselves. If we have been lucky, we have had some very good role models. There is still a gap that must be addressed as everyone is unique and no matter how good one person’s style or approach is, it is not likely to fit us. We must develop ourselves, and research shows the best way to do that is with a coach that has a base in being able to adapt leadership principles to personal styles and abilities. In our practice as coaches, we have seen hundreds of examples of leaders expressing their individuality and having great success in applying the principles of leadership.

Some of the fundamentals that we need are keeping emotions in check. Face the fact and embrace the reality that we are all emotional beings. Therefore, emotions cannot be shut down or shunted aside but rather they must be utilized to our advantage through a greater understanding of how they are constructed, where they originate and how they can actually serve us in role as a leader.

Another key is understanding our own triggers—things that are likely to throw us off our game. These are tricky little devils and take professional guidance to identify, understand their initiation and ways to keep control while honouring the human side of our structure. No easy feat, but it can be done as we have seen hundreds of times. Awareness of the triggers and skills in managing them expedite our abilities to lead teams.

These are often very like what I have written in past issues about blind spots—it’s like the space immediately behind your head which you cannot see firsthand. You need someone that has the perspective that allows for them to view these spots. I have recommended that you tap into those available around you, colleagues, leaders, teammates, outside resources, etc., so you can uncover these blind spots and take charge of your results. If you do not uncover them, you are going to fall as prey to them over and over again.

An example is one of my clients that has a super-sensitivity to criticism. By working together on this issue which held him back for years, he has been able to burst beyond the constraints it imposed upon him and break away to new heights of performance because he developed awareness of predisposed attitudes that stopped him from listening and made him defensive. He now embraces things that he couldn’t face before and reaps the benefits of accomplishing things previously out of reach.

There a lot of things that go into leadership such as values, principles, techniques, people-skills and more, and none of them are more important than what has been mentioned within this article. If you want to be the one who’s driving, you must make a commitment to become the best version of yourself.