Lemonade & Leadership

This week I wrapped up a series with a group of amazing leaders. Our time together culminated, as these often do, in having them draft a Personal Leadership Vision. (Vision: a desired future state that they are looking to create. Leadership: leading others AND leading themselves). Their end products were so powerful and inspiring. And gave me the spark to share the exercise with all of you. Seems like a good summer exercise while sitting in a park with a cold lemonade. 

Let’s take it lightly. It’s summer after all. Not too perfect or too precious. Set aside an hour total, you probably won’t need it. Scratch out a first pass – maybe 20-30 minutes. Use words or pictures, bullet point lists or long paragraphs, excel or colored markers on large post-it pads. The format is yours. 

Get up, stretch, go for a bike ride. Come back and add more – there’s always more that surfaces after a little pause and a little movement. And voila – you did it. You’ve got a perfect beginning. Not a contract. A tool to get you going. One thing for sure, there’s now more clarity and specificity than you had an hour earlier. 

Detailed Instructions:

Set a timeframe to realize your vision. A year is a nice chunk of time because you can picture it but not so fast that it will sneak up on you. That being said, shorter or longer are welcome. 

And now paint a picture of what leadership looks like – as expressed through you – when that timeframe has arrived. Everything about your behaviors, skills, mindset, attitude, physical self is right where you want it to be. There’s lots of domains to consider: communication style, relationships, strategy, execution, influence, outcomes, emotional intelligence.

You’re working to describe yourself at your BEST in leading others and leading yourself. Here’s some prompts to get you started: 

• How would others on your team describe you? 
• What are your greatest contributions to the workplace?
• What is your rapport with others? How did you build it? What is possible because of it?
• What is of most importance to you as a leader (eg your values)? And how do your core values show up in your work?
• What energy do you bring to your work? And what energetic perspective?
• How would you describe your communication style? Use of questions? Skills at listening? 
• What challenge areas have you cultivated or stretched?
• And what else? And what else? And what else? 

Fun to enlist some friends and/or colleagues who want to do one and share them. This is useful because a) strengthens your connection to your ideas to say them out loud, b) raises your accountability to say them to others, c) features inspiring ideas and you can shop from others’ visions, d) reminds you how we are so unique as you can clearly see different approaches to the same assignment. 

Once you’re done, ask yourself the following:

• When I read this over, which parts feel aspirational? How will I begin to close the gap between here and there? 
• Which parts feel already actualized? How can I leverage those areas to get the rest done? And what can I celebrate as already real?
• What will be the most challenging? How can I set myself up for success given any barriers?

And then  – – – – set One Best Next Step. Be specific – what will you do, by when, towards what outcome. And begin. You’re on your way.  

Want to raise your stakes – send me the first goal. Love to see.

PS after writing this (on a parkbench), I did one for myself. I spent 20 minutes scratching out some important aims, I picked the starting point, made notes so that I revisit the rest of the list and bump stuff up, and off I go. Wish me luck!