In my last blog entry I shared the video that was produced by The Maryland Chamber of Commerce where I discussed the foundation of true leader – your personal power. I shared that in order for a leader to grow their personal power they must focus on three key orientations as follows:

• An Outcome-Creative Orientation ¹.  All great leaders have this orientation which focuses on the results (vision, mission, goals, etc.) the leader is aiming to create and involves following a particular process grounded in vision and where actions are inspired by passion.
• Alignment of PERSONAL Purpose, Passion and Vision.  This is aligned but distinct from the orientation noted above because it is has to do with the leader taking the time to chose the personal purpose that is behind their leadership.  In other words, why are they showing up each day, what are they trying to move forward personally and ultimately what is their desired impact on the organizations and those that report to them.   When a leader turns this purpose over and it becomes the driver of all of their actions it generates an aligned passion.  From this place the leader can articulate a clear and compelling personal vision for their legacy.
• Empowered Presence which in short is experienced when the leader is both fully present in the moment, embodied in their purpose and extending their power into the space they are in.  This is one of those – you know it when you experience this presence in someone.  Yet, while a person might have natural presence – it is also something one can develop with desire, purpose and passion.

The key to all of this is to realize that if you are a leader and are not tapping into developing your power as described above  – you.. may be effective and a decent leader but there is no way you can become a great one.  It’s that simple.   And if you do not have this foundation then you will short change yourself in your ability to influence others as well as limit your level of achievement – personally and organizationally.

Yes, to consciously develop this power takes some effort personally.  My take is that leaders do not develop this for a couple reasons:

1. They do not understand this is the foundation of their leadership or do not think it is as important as it is.
2. They think they have been given their “portion of power” and try to use what they have as best as possible
3. They may sense that they could be more powerful but either don’t know how or it does not reach a high level on their priority list.  In short, what these leaders are saying is – me spending time on growing my power is of lower priority than proceeding with what I know – even though I know not paying attention to growing my power results in – at best – leads to me lowering my standards and – at its worst – leads to mediocrity or worse case – total failure to lead.

Finally, I will say it again and again.  Strengthening leadership in yourself and your organization pays HUGE DIVIDENDS.  Growing such leadership does take effort to develop just as any technical skill does.  The question is as a leader are you willing to do the internal work necessary to become the change you want to see in your company, your industry and the world?

This entry was posted on Friday, August 27th, 2010 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Leadership Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.