EP117: The Three Keys to Leadership Magic
CREATE LEADERSHIP IMPACT!
Learn about the three keys to being the most effective and magical leader you can be.
Enjoy!
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(The notes below are only a brief bullet point summary of what is discussed in the podcast. Be sure to listen to get all of the goodness! If you would like a full transcription of the episode, please send an email request to: angie@angie-robinson.com. We’d be happy to provide that!)
In the last post / episode - I talked about the name change of the podcast to “Leadership Magic”. Leadership IS magic!! Be sure to go back and listen / read if you haven’t yet so you can understand what I mean.
In my 25+ years of my “professional life” - especially in my work in Human Resources and the leadership space - I’ve had some very fundamental core beliefs about the ‘human’ side of work. I’ve had thoughts around the importance of self-awareness, honoring the whole person and investing in more than how to create sales and be more productive. Finally - I’ve grounded myself in what I believe really makes a leader (in all the ‘roles’ that can entail) effective, impactful and authentic. And I’ve put it into a framework. For me - structure and visuals are a great way to make sense of and tell a story.
I'm so excited to have developed this framework. It's been twirling around in my brain and in lots of different iterations for many years, so it feels really good to have something concrete.
I recently did a survey of leaders, asking questions such as: What are some of the best things about leadership? What are some of the biggest challenges and struggles? If you had a magic wand and could change one thing to make your leadership more impactful and effective, what would it be? I took those results and combined them with my own experience as a leader, and the many leaders I’ve worked with and coached over my career. There were two things that rose to the top as the biggest struggles and if improved upon - would make leadership more enjoyable, more engaging, more effective, and more impactful.
Those two things are confidence and communication. Underneath each one of those are a bunch of layers:
Confidence can include things like understanding comparison, embracing the inner villain (a.k.a. imposter syndrome), lack of experience, not seeing yourself as a leader, etc.
Communication might include things combating thoughts of “why don't people get it?” when you feel like you are always communicating but the results or behaviors don’t align, how to deliver tough messages and how to lead and manage multiple personality types.
Of course I know there are a lot of other challenges with leadership and entrepreneurship. But I believe that if these two areas were really clicking, it would impact everything else in such a positive way. These are not areas that you just take a class and check it off and you've got it mastered. There will always be new situations and new people in the mix that will affect the areas of confidence and communication. It's about digging deep and embodying the insights and then having the tools to use as a navigation when those new situations and personalities and people do enter the picture.
The Three Keys to Leadership Magic
This brings me to the framework I’ve created: The Three Keys to Leadership Magic.
These are the keys to becoming and being the most effective and impactful leader [and human] that one can be. Simply put, these three keys empower you to lead with confidence, create connection, and get results. This is for you whether you are a leader in an organization (with direct reports/in some sort of manager role or not), or you have your own business in which you are the CEO (solo or with a team), or really any area of life (such as parenting, as an educator or a service provider).
These three keys can elevate the way that you show up and the way that you impact. As you can see in the image - each circle houses a key. It’s where those three keys intersect that the magic is.
The three keys are: character, confidence and connection. In the middle where it all meets is you. That is where the magic is. You are the magic.
I like the circular shape to the image. To me, that signifies that it's ever changing and flowing. It's not a hard line. There is no right or wrong. All three of these keys are amazing on their own. Each can have an impact, yet when all three are focused on and they do combine together, that is where the true, true magic lies.
Here is a bit more about each key, including the main essence, the definition (and my modified definition), the mission and some of the key concepts, activities and behaviors that can be focused on.
✨CHARACTER:
Character is about creating real, authentic impact.
Definition: character or features that make up and distinguish an individual. My add: character is about who you are. It is understanding, leveraging and realigning, your unique combination of personality, style, values, beliefs, and behaviors so you can show up in a way that feels more authentic to you, equipping you to better handle challenges and lead others effectively with meaningful impact. Your character encompasses your personality preferences, values, strengths, the areas that you need to develop, your blind spots, experiences, mindset, beliefs, and behaviors. Your character drives how you show up for yourself and how you show up for others. It drives your ability to create trust and lead with impact, empathy and authenticity. It's your unique footprint.
All people have multiple traits that make up who they are. And these traits are they really demonstrated in a lot of various ways, such as through your actions, through your words, through your thoughts. And your interactions with others. Character is what really can shape personality, but also personality influences character.
Mission of this key: to get clear on the whole of your character so you can leverage what needs to be leveraged and change what needs to be changed all in service of creating the results that you want to create.
Concepts and behaviors: Engaging in a personality assessment (such as Insights Discovery), gathering feedback from others, getting clear on your values, understanding your ‘why’, tapping into the future version of yourself, opening up to possibility and cfreating a leadership statement.
To go deep with character - you need to be willing to understand mindset and use curiosity and compassion as a skill. You need a willingness to go beneath the surface to get uncomfortable.
✨CONFIDENCE:
Confidence is where you make a bold difference.
Definition: faith or belief that one will act in a right proper or effective way; the quality of being certain. My add: belief in yourself and your abilities. Confidence is using your voice, facing any challenge, taking risks and going after your goals - even when you're afraid, unsure and/or fail. Confidence extends to your belief in others and their abilities too. When you build up that muscle of confidence, you will overcome what is getting in your way so you can show up even when you're uncomfortable, take the risks and create exceptional performance results - all while inspiring others to do the same.
Mission of this key: to understand and learn how to overcome what is getting in the way and take control of creating confidence so you can take action, inspire, empower, and get results.
Confidence is something that you can build up. It's not something you are either born with or not!
Concepts and behaviors: Understanding how our thoughts create our feelings, behaviors and results, get clear on your beliefs about yourself and learning how to retrain your brain, getting clear on what you like and don’t like about yourself and how to embrace and have agency with that, learning how to overcome imposter syndrome, building resilience, create decision-making strategies and taking risks.
To go deep with confidence, you need to be comfortable leaning into the uncomfortable, be willing to take risks even if you’re afraid, be willing to fail, have your own back, practice self-compassion and honor your decisions.
✨ CONNECTION:
Connection is about unlocking the best in others.
Definition: a relationship between two things, people or groups. My add: refers to the relationship that you have with yourself, with your team and your peer group and the work that you do. It's about building and nurturing healthy relationships rooted in safety and trust with your team, with your peers and the others around you. When you have connection, you will cultivate deep understanding of others, tap into diverse talents, master communication, foster trust, and amplify performance results.
Mission of this key: to build and nurture healthy relationships by understanding others and adapting your style to meet theirs, fostering a collaborative and safe environment, building trust and cultivating effective communication.
For ‘ultimate’ leadership - you do need to have strong self-awareness, but you are also charged with inspiring others and to get results through others. To do that, you need to understand how other people operate - their personality styles. You learn how to you adapt your own style so you can connect better with them. You need to understand how to build an environment of trust, psychological safety and collaboration. You should be effective in your communication.
Concepts and behaviors: spending time with a sound assessment tool that will help you learn how to recognize others’ personality preferences, dig into the concepts of trust and psychological safety, elevating skills of inspiring and influencing, lots of dissecting and mastering communication strategies (including giving / receiving feedback, coaching and active listening) and understanding how to lead others through change and transition.
To dig into connection - you need to have a willingness to be authentic, open up to vulnerability, have an open mind, and to shift your perspective. You have to be willing to spend time on thought work and get into the emotional intelligence side.
Connection is all about the humans.
Summary
So there you have it - the three keys in a nutshell. Spending time on these three keys will make you an impactful and effective leader and up-level your own humanness. No matter what leadership looks like for you, humans are at the core.
Spending time at each three of these keys helps to identify what thought gaps or skill gaps there might be. From there, you will have clarity on where to focus your ongoing development. All three of these will influence each other. They will continue to challenge you. They will continue to shape who you are and how you show up as a leader. It's never ending - and that's exactly how it's supposed to be. You can work on one of the keys and it will influence the other. The ripple effect on the people that you interact with and lead is quite amazing. I know this and I believe this to my core.
What Do You Think?
Which of these three keys would you like to spend more time on?
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