8 Questions Every Leader Needs to Answer

by Authentic LeadershipLeadership

8 Questions Every Leader Needs to Answer

Leadership is a combination of art and science. It’s complex and the last 14  months have added many new demands and additional complexities to what you may have already been experiencing such resulting in increased overwhelm, stress and burnout.  

The Feeling of Overwhelm...

This feeling of overwhelm has likely infected the entire organization, so that everyone feels like they are unfocused, moving in too many directions, and not quite in sync with each other.

There is no magic bullet for today’s business realities, but there is a simple, powerful tool that can get you and your team grounded, and focused on what really matters. In today’s world of algorithms, apps, customized software, etc. this simple one-page tool that will help you focus on what’s important. 

A Simple One-Page Tool

It is called the Leader’s Dashboard. On a single page, it captures eight key areas that every leader needs to consider. You can use this tool to stay focused on your most important priorities, as well as on your organization’s vision, mission, values, strategic edge, ways you will measure success, key business and professional relationships, and ongoing organizational and professional growth. 

The Leadership Dashboard is one of the simplest and yet most powerful tools for leaders in organizations of all sizes to:

  • Focus on what matters, so that you spend your time doing the things that have the most impact.
  • Make sure that everyone in the organization is aligned and accountable.
  • Develop leaders who continue to move the organization forward.

8 Critical Elements of Your Leadership Dashboard

Your Leader’s Dashboard would include a succinct summary of:

  1. The organization’s vision.
  2. The organization’s purpose and mission.
  3. Values.
  4. Strategic edge.
  5. Top 3 initiatives.
  6. Key performance indicators to track success.
  7. Relationships.
  8. Top strategies to build organizational capacity.

The Leader's Dashboard Self-Inventory

Want to see where you think you stand on some of the areas covered in our Leader’s Dashboard? If so, I invite you to join our mailing list. With each issue, we provide a downloadable resource to our dedicated subscribers.  Just click the image to the right. 

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Never Compromise Your Values

by Authentic LeadershipValues

Never Compromise Your Values

YOU are your values. Values are the part  of you that IS you. Values are the ‘why’ of your   actions. 

Your values are your core...

They are the “why” of your actions. Orienting around your values   doesn’t require a great deal of effort, or even setting goals (though you’ll find when you set your   goals in alignment with your values, that you’ll achieve them easier and faster, which is a much higher experience of fulfillment).  

Think of values as how you live, when you are really living as you. For example, some people are natural explorers. They were at age 6, and at age 40 they are taking adventure trips. The person with the value of exploring doesn’t have to make themselves go  explore – they  just do it or more likely seek out opportunities for exploration. Values may be culturally-based or genetically-based, or a combination. The purpose of my comments today is not to explain where   values come from, rather to discuss how to orient around them so that  you experience greater Personal Freedom. 

Values run extremely deep within us...

In fact, they run so deep that sometimes they act more like   turtles, hiding  themselves whenever danger is sensed. Values are easily squashed by needs, shoulds, and problems because they represent Danger. But our values always remain at our core. 

Think for a moment about a time that someone said or did something that really upset you. There is a very big likelihood that those words or that action offended one of your core values. 

General truths about orienting around your values...

  • Your values are worth discovering.
  • Values are a sustainable basis for goal-setting.
  • Values bring fulfillment.

Orienting around  your values affords a greater sense of fulfillment – and even when you don’t quite make your goals, the experience you get from being values-based will, itself, bring fulfillment.  

The benefits of orienting around your values...

  • Goal setting is easier.
  • Your life purpose comes to you more clearly.
  • You will experience fewer distractions.