Leadership Frequency - The Energy of Leadership
Posted on April 26, 2015 by Katie B Smith, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
Simple steps for learning how to become a more effective leader by resonating with your authentic self.
If you look at everything as energy, including yourself, how would you rate your leadership frequency? Evaluate yourself on a scale of 1-10. A rating of one demonstrates passive leadership, acting disengaged, and getting caught in your own thoughts, responsibilities and stress. A rating of ten demonstrates reactive behavior: operating so tightly internally that you are constantly worried, feeling under pressure, and lashing out. Part of being a good leader is managing your energy frequency at a place in the middle of the scale –engaged, communicative, listening, and responding to challenges verses reacting. These traits allow you to be proactive and inspire others to step into more of their potential. The more you stretch, the more your team stretches, and the more your organization grows.
How to Keep This Frequency and Manage it on a Consistent Basis
It starts internally; it is crucial for leaders to incorporate body, mind and heart strategies into how they listen and look at themselves and their organizations. To be an effective leader and cultivate an engaged team, strategies are needed that support leaders being in a place internally that is neutral – where they can discern instead of judge, and be open enough to connect, inspire and find solutions to the toughest problems.
Two Keys to Sustain Balance and Produce Internal Stability
LISTEN
The key to being engaged and listening to others is to first listen to yourself. Do you only listen to the negative voice inside your head that is trapped in fear and shame? How can you begin to listen to the still small voice, which is your inner knowing and intuition? This is the voice that truly lends solutions to the toughest problems, leads us to connect with the right people, and honor and build trust in ourselves as a leader. This voice is directing you constantly, but how often do you listen to it? What practices have you put in place to let it become louder than the negative voice? It may not be the advice you want to hear or be the easiest action to take, but if listened to and acted on, it is the wisest voice.
Key tips for listening to ourselves
•Create space for quiet: Start with a time that works for you, even if it is only 3 minutes in your day.
•Use a word or mantra: Train your mind into focused concentration so you are not distracted by all the other thoughts.
•Observe yourself when you listen: Not judging – just paying attention to how you listen.
These steps will help to calm your mind, to quiet your thoughts, and to train your brain to listen for insights and solutions.
OBSERVE
Energy is about how you hold yourself. Begin to observe your body not from a place of judgment but from a place of noticing that is unattached to the negative thoughts. Do you experience yourself strong and vital from the inside out? Energy is a presence you emanate from your state of mind, the stature of your body, and the openness of your heart. What practices encourage the leader within you to step forward? Observe your thoughts. What thoughts sabotage you? Consider what habits you need to replace, and what strategies you need to practice to allow yourself to lead.
Body: Take an honest look at how your body feels.
How do you physically feel when you speak as a confident leader? What do you feel in your body when you inhabit this role? Now think about what action you can take to begin feeling more this way. If you notice fear, what strategy will help you cope and lead in spite of the fear?
Mind: Take an in-depth look at your self-talk.
What do you need to say to yourself to step more fully into leading? How can you begin to talk to yourself in a way that encourages your leadership to appear? What negative self-talk do you need to delete or replace?
Heart: Look inside for the real guidance and support.
What does your heart, gut, or intuition tell you when you are leading? Does fear stop you from saying what you believe? Authentic leaders listen to and speak from the heart. Name one action you can take to practice listening to your heart and leading from there. Seeing yourself within the framework of body, mind and heart integrates all of you. This allows you to lead from a place of collaboration, authenticity and full engagement.
I recently heard author and speaker John Maxwell state that in order to be a great leader, we first have to master leading ourselves. Great leaders embody the qualities of Inspiration, commitment, and engagement. They communicate clearly and concisely, practicing what they preach. All of these have to be harnessed inside the individual before leading a team in the same way.
The key elements in harnessing the energy of a great leader are the qualities of being intentional and consistent. Intention builds the structure and the focus for what you aim to do, and it sets in motion the energy for what you want to create. Consistency makes leadership a habit, and it becomes your way of being in the world.
It is best to start small. Listening and observing are key touchstones to help you shift the sabotaging behaviors and thoughts into the action steps that create sustainable change and eventually propels you into living more fully engaged, integrated and connected to your teams, your colleagues and yourself. This fosters growing organizations in the frequency of wholeness and happiness where productivity and revenues thrive.
