I am a student of self-improvement. I have had so many books on the topic that I had to begin donating them to educational libraries. One book that I have recently acquired is “Leadership from the Inside Out.”
It was written by Kevin Cashman, founder and chief executive officer of LeaderSource, an international leadership and executive coaching consultancy. It was given to me as a gift by one of my political mentors, Carlsbad City Manager Ray Patchett.
While I have just begun to read it, I thought I would share two of the author's check lists with you. Cashman is the guru of self-discovery inside each of us. His opening statement is: “The missing link in leadership development is growing the person to grow the leader. As we grow so shall we lead.”
Personal Mastery Summary
• Take total responsibility: No one else can validate your value. It is for you to give yourself. Leaders can effectively validate and support others only if they have validated themselves first.
• Practice personal mastery with others: Risk sharing your genuine thoughts and feelings with others. Avoid “creating by others” in your image or being “created by others” in their image. Lead with your own original voice.
• Bring beliefs to conscious awareness: Clarify conscious beliefs and uncover shadow beliefs. Practice reinforcing the ones that open up possibilities and setting aside the ones that limit you. As you believe, so shall you lead.
• Develop awareness of character and persona: Commit to being guided by the qualities of character. Character transforms, persona copes. Transform how you lead and how you live by making character primary and persona secondary.
• Listen to feedback: Sometimes other people hold keys to unlocking self-knowledge. Rather than spending energy resisting feedback, look for the seeds of learning contained in people's perceptions. Leaders grow proportionally to their openness to input.
• Consider finding a coaching process: Seek objective coaching support to accelerate your growth as a leader. Willingly partner with an expert in personal growth much as you partner with experts regarding business issues.
• Be flexible: Overdeveloped strengths may work against you as things change. Be prepared to take a fresh approach. Be open to drawing new personal potentialities to prepare for future leadership challenges.
Being Mastery Summary
• Take your own journey into being: Getting on the path to self-discovery is your own very personal journey. Only you can decide what “vehicle” to take on your travels and how you want to get there. Start walking and enjoy both the process and the goal. If you want to achieve more as a leader, you need to be more as a person.
• Resolve life challenges by going to a deeper level: Problems are just opportunities seen from a limited vantage point. Learn to dive deeply within yourself to view your leadership and life challenges from a more comprehensive perspective. Leaders navigate from the depths of their being; managers tend to cope with the waves on the surface.
• Consider learning to meditate: Learning to revitalize your mind and body is the inner effectiveness. If you have a difficult time even considering the idea of learning some form of meditation practice, then remember the equation for personal and leadership development: resistance = need.
• Integrate more reflection into your life: Taking the time to reduce the noise in your life allows you to hear and express the music in your soul. Profound insights and breakthrough ideas usually arise from the stillness of the leader's being.
These are neat points to ponder when you analyze your own leadership potential. For the whole study, pick up a copy of Cashman's book and enjoy it.
It was written by Kevin Cashman, founder and chief executive officer of LeaderSource, an international leadership and executive coaching consultancy. It was given to me as a gift by one of my political mentors, Carlsbad City Manager Ray Patchett.
While I have just begun to read it, I thought I would share two of the author's check lists with you. Cashman is the guru of self-discovery inside each of us. His opening statement is: “The missing link in leadership development is growing the person to grow the leader. As we grow so shall we lead.”
Personal Mastery Summary
• Take total responsibility: No one else can validate your value. It is for you to give yourself. Leaders can effectively validate and support others only if they have validated themselves first.
• Practice personal mastery with others: Risk sharing your genuine thoughts and feelings with others. Avoid “creating by others” in your image or being “created by others” in their image. Lead with your own original voice.
• Bring beliefs to conscious awareness: Clarify conscious beliefs and uncover shadow beliefs. Practice reinforcing the ones that open up possibilities and setting aside the ones that limit you. As you believe, so shall you lead.
• Develop awareness of character and persona: Commit to being guided by the qualities of character. Character transforms, persona copes. Transform how you lead and how you live by making character primary and persona secondary.
• Listen to feedback: Sometimes other people hold keys to unlocking self-knowledge. Rather than spending energy resisting feedback, look for the seeds of learning contained in people's perceptions. Leaders grow proportionally to their openness to input.
• Consider finding a coaching process: Seek objective coaching support to accelerate your growth as a leader. Willingly partner with an expert in personal growth much as you partner with experts regarding business issues.
• Be flexible: Overdeveloped strengths may work against you as things change. Be prepared to take a fresh approach. Be open to drawing new personal potentialities to prepare for future leadership challenges.
Being Mastery Summary
• Take your own journey into being: Getting on the path to self-discovery is your own very personal journey. Only you can decide what “vehicle” to take on your travels and how you want to get there. Start walking and enjoy both the process and the goal. If you want to achieve more as a leader, you need to be more as a person.
• Resolve life challenges by going to a deeper level: Problems are just opportunities seen from a limited vantage point. Learn to dive deeply within yourself to view your leadership and life challenges from a more comprehensive perspective. Leaders navigate from the depths of their being; managers tend to cope with the waves on the surface.
• Consider learning to meditate: Learning to revitalize your mind and body is the inner effectiveness. If you have a difficult time even considering the idea of learning some form of meditation practice, then remember the equation for personal and leadership development: resistance = need.
• Integrate more reflection into your life: Taking the time to reduce the noise in your life allows you to hear and express the music in your soul. Profound insights and breakthrough ideas usually arise from the stillness of the leader's being.
These are neat points to ponder when you analyze your own leadership potential. For the whole study, pick up a copy of Cashman's book and enjoy it.