Lead Yourself First: The Basics of Self-Leadership

Before you can be an effective leader you first need to make sure that you are the type of leader that others will respect and follow.

• What is your agenda?

“I don’t have one!” I hear you say. Really? If you don’t have an agenda or a motive I’m not sure how you plan to move your people forward. The key is having a good agenda like you want to help others grow and succeed. If your motives are purely of personal gain and success a leadership role may not be for you. The cornerstone of leadership is growing others.

• Am I an example of what I expect from others?

Leaders are only human however as a leader you need to be aware of how others view you and your behavior. Are you drinking too much at business events perhaps? Chronically being late for work? Perhaps you are asking others to work late while you never stay past 4:00pm. Take a hard look at yourself, leaders should always be asking themselves “How can I improve?”

• Are you organized?

Leaders have a lot of responsibilities and the key to keeping control is being organized. Your staff don’t want to see a flustered manager, they need an better example! Make sure you are planning your days, scheduling time for your employees and delegating tasks where you can.

 

Introspection is one of the crucial exercises that leaders must engage in. When we keep striving to be better leaders we create the drive to lead in others. Make sure you can handle constructive criticism and never fall into the trap where you believe you cannot grow further as a leader.

Have you got a topic you’d like me to cover? Leave a comment here or DM me on Twitter!

 

 

5 Leadership Tips from a Paramedic

When I began my career as a Paramedic I never could have guessed that the leadership lessons I learnt from Emergency Services could be translated into the corporate world. However years later when I entered a leadership position in a large corporate I found myself drawing strongly from this experience. Here are 5 of my favorite tips:

1. Leave the ego at home (it’s not wanted here)

When you’re a paramedic it’s very easy to develop an inflated image of yourself. After all you are performing life saving work right? The same is true about leaders in business. It’s easy to think that you are now the top dog and you don’t need to listen to anyone. Wrong. If fact this attitude will be your downfall as it prevents you from doing introspection which is vital to your growth as a leader. Egotistical leaders will struggle to admit their mistakes and will not be able to positively influence their staff.  Be humble, it’s what the position calls for.

2. You have responsibilities here

Great, you’re a leader! Time to kick back and let everyone else do the work for a change right? Absolutely not. Going from doing individual work to being a leader is all about realizing how much responsibility you now have. It’s great to be a senior paramedic but when you get on that accident scene you have to know you are responsible for everyone and everything that happens. No more blame games, it’s just you.

3. Delegate or die

It’s pretty much impossible for one paramedic to deal with multiple patients who all need emergency attention. I mean they only have one set of hands. First time managers often make the mistake of trying to do it all to prove their abilities. However you are no longer an individual worker. You have a group of people to manage and you need to ensure that they are assisting you, especially in the day to day functions of your department.

4. If you panic, everyone panics

Imagine you were having a heart attack and the ambulance crew who arrived to assist you started to panic? That would be scary right?  Your staff will always follow your lead. If you give them a manager who cracks under pressure and is inconsistent that is the way they will behave and it’s hardly productive. It’s okay to be scared, even worried, but be strong for your people.

5. Respect

The saddest thing I see in the corporate world is a lack of respect that sometimes extends even to the clients they serve. Part of being a leader is realizing you are definitely not the most important person in the business despite your job title. You could not operate without the people doing the grunt work or the lady who cleans the toilets. If your staff see that you don’t respect them or others then you have zero chance of them respecting you.