In my last blog, I wrote about the leadership reality of emotionally charged issues, and the need on the part of leaders to exercise self-control rather than operating in a reactionary manner when addressing such issues. Effective leaders are able to operate with emotional balance so that they are not controlled by their passions.

Another reality that leaders have to deal with is busyness. While emotion is not a valid substitute for activity, mere activity is not a valid replacement for effectiveness. Leaders busy themselves with the most important things rather than being side-tracked by urgent
endeavors. They have the discernment to identify what should receive priority attention: What only they can and should do, and what is required by their superiors. Beyond this, they have the discipline to channel their energy in those areas, and to say no to other things, no matter how important they may appear to be. At the same time, they develop the skill of delegating to others things that need to be done, but with which they should not be engaged. This is a challenge that I face each day, and one thing that has helped me is the review of priorities and goals on a regular basis. I would like to know how others handle the reality of busyness. What is your response to Andy Stanley’s premise that less is more? By this he means that more is accomplished by zeroing in on fewer things, which are more in line with one’s strengths or what he refers to as one’s sweet spot.

Welcome Reality Leadership!

Many of your receiving this blog, have been a part of the Reality Leadership Network. As a review, I have touched upon these leadership issues:
The importance of coaching for clarification, encouragement, and accountability
The importance of character and the relationship between character and particular competencies in addressing leadership realities. While character is the most important issue, and the most difficult to address in coaching others, character alone does not make a person a good leader.
Ongoing growth in character is the best preparation for addressing the realities of leadership.

Beginning today, I will be blogging some of my thoughts on leadership that are drawn from my personal journal. I look forward to reading some of your responses to my thoughts.

One of the leadership realities that I mentioned last month was that of emotionally-charged issues. We all have certain hot-button issues that both reveal what we value and also get our juices going. While it is not bad to have things that we are passionate about, we first need to insure that these are worthy of the value that we put on them and not merely personal preferences. Unfortunately many, if not most of these issues are related to our ego in some way. We need to be passionate about the right things. Sometimes other people, who are willing to be honest with us will help us to gain a proper perspective on such issues. Beyond the what question is the how question, because such issues tend to cause emotional reactions on our parts rather than objective responses. Effective people learn how to manage their responses, so that they exercise good judgment, or as one author has called it emotional intelligence in responding to those things that trigger our emotions. We are reminded in Proverbs that A fool always loses his tempter, but a wise man keeps himself under control.