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Personal Business Coach
Inspired Development and Coaching |
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Building leadership presence and impact
Let’s start by asking some impertinent and personal questions:
o Is the impact you have on other people helping or hindering your career?
o Do you have an innate ability to connect with and inspire confidence in others?
o Do you have the air and authority of a natural leader?
o Is the persona that you project one that inspires others to readily follow?
If in considering these questions (both in the light of your personal qualities and those evidenced by your managers and leaders) you feel no pang of discomfort, then you need read no further. For the rest of us mortals, the good news is that leadership presence is not something that just happens by accident; rather it occurs as the result of specific behaviours and beliefs that can be acquired and learned over time. Read on …
In your day to day work is there a feeling of effortless spontaneity, of achieving without effort and trying? Is your mind quiet and focused with an air of relaxed concentration, enjoyment and trust? Does it often happen that there is nothing in your mind but an intense focus on what is happening to you and around you at this instant, as action follows upon action according to an internal logic that seems to need no conscious intervention by you? Do you exhibit a mastery and control of what you are doing, your responses perfectly attuned to the task?
o Do you recognise this in yourself?
o Do you recognise it in leaders you admire?
o Do you recognise it in successful leaders who consistently deliver outstanding business results?
o Do you recognise this in the managers and leaders who are responsible for the success and growth of your business?
Or … is there a ceaseless dialogue going on in your head, juggling priorities, commitments and concerns, constantly judging you and frequently finding you wanting? Do you often find yourself trying too hard, working too quickly, split between many tasks and priorities, and trying desperately to impress? Do you sometimes come across to others as anxious and distracted? When the pressure is really on do you experience fear, self doubt, self consciousness, self judgement, tension and stress? Do you find yourself struggling to find the right way?
o Do you recognise this in yourself?
o Do you recognise this in the managers and leaders who are responsible for the success and growth of your business?
We certainly doubt that this will be present to the same extent in leaders you admire, or in those that consistently deliver outstanding business results. The truth is that personal impact and presence, the state implied by the first of the two contrasting sets of questions above, is the key defining factor of effective leadership and thus of business success.
To develop this further, in our experience there are three distinguishing factors between those who experience successful, stimulating and enjoyable careers, and those others who either fail to reach their full potential, or completely derail. These factors are:
o Business acumen – that is: a strategic awareness, an ability to appropriately frame and assess situations, to apply a depth of perception, to notice patterns of convergence and divergence, to link insightful assessments and to know how money can be made.
o A strong ability to appropriately structure time and manage priorities.
o The facility to project oneself with authority and to inspire confidence in others.
In our work with managers and leaders we focus intensively on all three areas. Indeed, without the other two, leadership presence is in danger of being little more than style without substance.
The point we wish to emphasise, however, is that when these three elements are considered and worked on together, it is leadership presence that is the difference that makes the difference.
In the weeks and months to come we will be publishing here a host of articles on leadership with presence and impact, and specifically how this can help to unlock the potential of individuals and teams to deliver superior business results.
We will also publish a series of practical tips and guidelines to help you improve your leadership presence. For the first of these, click on the following link: http://www.personalbusinesscoach.co.uk/news1.html
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