Taking Your Leadership Temperature
As we develop and mature as leaders, others may want to follow. Along the way, there are many tests we must pass to earn followership. Taking our leadership temperature regularly can increase our self-awareness.
Here are 3 ways I use to evaluate how I am doing as a leader.
1) How are you doing under pressure?
It is only when we are under pressure (too many priorities, big issues to resolve, home challenges, health problems, etc.….), we discover our current leadership capacity. Nearly anyone can do great things when conditions are perfect and our teams are executing well.
Character is the distinguishing attribute of an exemplary leader .
We need challenging times to test our character. It is in these times we discover what is at your center.
2) Are people following?
When people chose to follow us, it is because they believe not only in the leader, but more importantly in the vision of where the leader is leading them. We have a responsibility to cast a vision where each person can see themselves in it and the contributions they are asked to make are meaningful to them.
3) How do people feel after they receive an assignment?
We measure this in terms of energy transferred to or from our teams.
For example, when our people feel positive after interacting with us we see increased loyalty, engagement, and commitment. The work gets done and they feel good about it.
To the contrary, when the team feels disheartened after interactions with us, the work may get done, but the people will give the minimum effort to achieve the goal, may begin to feel like disengaging, complain, and may even look for another leader to follow.
What is your thermometer telling you?
Questions to consider:
What can you do to create positive energy on your team?
How do you know your followers are energized?
What extra-ordinary pressures are you facing right now?
Becoming self aware is critical in becoming an effective Shepherd Leader. A book that helped me grow in this area is Emotional intelligence 2.0.
