Lead Yourself Before You Lead Others - By Dave Osh

作者 hanji

2010/07/20 Tuesday 10:45:03 JST

Do you remember the years after graduation? We were learning new skills,  accumulating knowledge, becoming an expert in our field and earning  higher salaries as we scaled the corporate ladder.  Our career soared until it stalled. Why?  Careers can ride on professional knowledge just for a certain distance.  Sooner or later, gracefully or brutally, rapidly or slowly, we will  discover that leadership is more about who we are than what we do.  Goethe wrote "before you can do something you must be something". We  cannot be the inspirational leaders we hope to be if we feel miserable  and depressed. We cannot inspire people to excel if we are unmotivated.  We cannot lead teams to victory if we do not feel victorious.  There is an old story that brings home this point:  A father was relaxing on a couch after a long day at the office reading  a newspaper. His son playing around him disturbed his peaceful moments  of the day. The father, fed up, ripped out a picture of the globe that  was in the paper and tore it into as many tiny pieces as he could. 'Son,  can you try to put this globe together?' asked the dad, hoping this  would keep the little boy busy long enough to finish reading the paper.  He was stunned when his son returned after a few minutes with the globe  perfectly reassembled. 'How did you do it son?' asked the astonished  father. The kid smiled and replied 'Daddy, on the other side of the  globe there was a picture of a person. Once I got the person together,  the world was okay'.  Success begins within. It all starts by getting ourselves together. Once  we do, our own world will be okay. We see the world not as it is, but as  we are. By improving, refining and defining who we are, we see the world  from more enlightened perspectives.  Leadership of others begins with our internal leadership. If we want to  continue to grow we have to continue developing ourselves toward what we  want to be as human beings. Self-awareness provides us the tools to  achieve our goals in our working place, family, community and  relationship.  We need to stop running if not completely clear on the ultimate  destination. We may run the wrong way. Taking time for reflection and  introspection allows us to analyze what to do and how to make continual  improvements.  My personal growth starts with reading uplifting books for at least  thirty minutes a day. Knowledge provides a great path to self awareness.  You are probably thinking 'how can I find additional 30 minutes every  day to read? Reading comes in many shapes and styles. Reading is a  metaphor of gaining new knowledge continuously. Whether you read a book,  listen to MP3 audio book, attend a seminar or read an ebook on your  tablet, mobile or computer, you enrich your mind.  Every problem you want to solve, the solution lies within you. New  knowledge will help you identify and act on it. Every mistake in life  has already been made by somebody who wrote about it. If we want to be  better communicators, superior parents, lovers and friends, reading and  knowledge can guide us.  If you do not work from home, you probably have on average at least 30  minutes commuting to your workplace. Make it into your mobile university.  Convert your toilet into a library. It just means making the commitment.  The type of person we will become in 5 years from now depends on the  knowledge that we gain and the decisions we make because of this  knowledge. Would you appreciate spending a few hours with Barack Obama  or Bill Clinton? Do you want Dale Carnegie or Napoleon Hill to be your  personal coach? Would you mind to be mentored by Mahatma Gandhi and  Mother Theresa? Or maybe learn creative thinking from Thomas Edison, Ben  Franklin and Alexander Graham Bell? It's all in books.  Leaders commit to a lifelong learning. Learning no longer ends when we  finish our last exam. It must continue as long as we live. Before we  lead others we should lead ourselves.  Self-awareness, reflection and introspection are proven ways to know  ourselves and, hence, become role models to the people around us whether  they are our colleagues, friends, spouses and children.    They expect us to be at our best.  会社を経営している人間として自分自身を動機付けできなければ前に進めないと  いつも思っています。成功よりも失敗が多い会社経営ですが、多分、誰もが私た  ちと同じ失敗を繰り返して成功を勝ち取っているのではないでしょうか。  失敗することで人間は自分の足りなさを学びます。そして、それが出発点になり  ます。 Q1: How do you motivate yourself?

 

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