Leadership Tidbits: Are you a Leader?

Leadership is one of my favorite topics, and one I’ve been studying at least 15 years now. I’m passionate about this subject, because WHO we are as a person and HOW we lead literally affects everything around us. Over the last while, I’ve been pulling together thoughts to share, and I’ll do my best to do so in bite-sized pieces. 🙂

First tidbit: You are a leader. Periodically, I run into people who insist they are not leaders. They don’t have the title of a leader, bestowed to them by someone, so therefore they’re not a leader. I beg to differ. Are you married? Do you have kids? Do you work? Do you share any portion of your life with any person or on social media?

Unless you live in a totally isolated bubble, you are a leader. Leadership has to do with influence. You influence others with your thoughts and your actions. You can affect them for good or you can choose to affect them for bad. Would you rather have a positive or a negative impact in someone’s life? You get to choose!

A few practicals for having a positive impact:
1. Pay attention to your own “self-talk”. How do you talk to yourself? Are you constantly criticizing yourself and putting yourself down? Take the next day or so to take note of your inner thoughts, and see what kind of pattern you notice. Jot some of these things down in a private place so you can shed some light on them and see how you really feel about yourself.

2. Make an effort to think well of yourself – notice something you did well, or somewhere you gave a good effort, and encourage yourself! “Hey self! Great job not getting mad at the guy who just stole your parking spot!” or “Way to go getting a load of laundry put away!” Focus on the positive and you’ll find yourself feeing more positive all around.

A big help for me during the day is to remind myself how God thinks about me. He’s not scowling at me, or criticizing me for every little thing I’ve not done perfectly. He likes me! And He likes you too! Just closing my eyes for a moment and picturing God smiling at me can go a long way to getting a right perspective on my day.

3. As you start to think well of yourself, you will naturally start to think better of others. Pay attention to your inner talk about others, especially the people you are closest to! Do you complain about their behavior to yourself (and maybe to others?), or do you notice the positive about them too? If there’s someone I’m struggling with relationally, it always helps when I ask God to show me the person the way He sees them. It’s amazing how I gain a lot more patience, and a softer heart towards someone that used to rub me the wrong way.

This week, pay attention to your self-talk, and see how a little bit of “thinking differently” can have a big impact!