Your Leadership Diamond

How To Transform the Way You Live Your Life, Lead Your People and Leave a Legacy

Paul Mitchell

• Publisher: Woodslane Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781925868418
• eBook ISBN: 9781925868517
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

What's the point of making the numbers but not making a difference?
What's the point of being a brilliant leader in the workplace but a failure at home?
What's the point of building great relationships but underdelivering on promised outcomes?
Paul Mitchell reveals how in a period of just seven weeks, you can take your leadership to a whole new level. He inspires us to see ourselves as diamonds that just need a little polishing to really shine. You'll discover simple, practical advice, for time-poor leaders who wish to transform the way they lead at work, at home and in their communities.

Part 1

Digging for
Diamonds

COLLECTIVE MYTHS REGARDING LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

There’s a rumour going around that real leadership is the domain of the chosen few, and that it takes almost superhuman powers and personality traits to lead. In fact, you’ll even hear people say, “Oh, no. I could never be a leader.” That’s ridiculous.

There are many reasons for this paradigm, but I will share three myths that are often swallowed but aren’t true. Frankly, they make it harder for you than it needs to be to enhance your leadership effectiveness. It’s as if we’ve gone into a cultural trance and have been hypnotised into believing them.

The three myths

1. Leaders are born, not made.
2. Leadership is complicated.
3. It takes a lifetime to learn to lead.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Come out of your trance now for your awakening.

Let’s bust all three myths. I want you to truly believe you can transform your leadership in seven weeks. But like anything in life, your mind set—your belief that it’s possible—is essential to your results. So here are three alternative beliefs that I’d like you to call your very own, at least for the next seven weeks.

1. Anyone can lead; it’s a choice.
2. Leadership is simple (although not easy), but it’s as complicated as I want to make it.
3. I can dramatically transform my leadership in seven weeks and continue to refine it for the rest of my days.

Let’s now look at these alternative beliefs one by one.

Empowering belief 1: anyone can lead; it’s a choice

You really can lead from any chair. It’s a choice. You don’t need the title of leader on your business card. In fact, positional power used too often can erode your leadership and true connection to others. Power really does reduce empathy. Sure, you’ll get people doing what you ask, but it will be out of compliance (“have to” energy) rather than commitment (“want to” energy). The real power rests with the people doing the work.

And what about the question of leaders being born, not made? Well, I’ve never seen a leader who wasn’t born, and neither have you. They are all born. But I’ve never bought into the concept of a born leader. Leadership is a mindset and set of skills, both of which can be learned. It’s about leaving people, places, and processes better than you found them. It’s the receptionist who looks at the poor service of the current courier company, checks out their prices, and then researches and recommends a better option to management. That’s a leadership chair. Again, you can lead from any chair.

But I do have a caveat to this. Some families and environments give our kids a better chance at picking up leadership skills somewhere down the track. In the home where the parents keep telling their kids how much they are loved, how unique they are (balancing this with how we are all flawed in some way), and how important it is to give back and to contribute, these kids definitely have a head start at being “servant” leaders, as Robert Greenleaf calls them in Servant Leadership.

But many Senior Leaders tell me “Paul, we can’t all be leaders, some of us have to be followers.” Well, why not be both?
In fact, I believe you can never really be a good leader unless you’ve also learnt to be a good follower. The more senior you are, the more you have to continually check that you’re leaving your ego at the door. A big dose of humility trumps a big dose of hubris every time.

So make a choice. Make it your choice to lead.

Empowering belief 2: leadership is simple - it’s as complicated as I want to make it

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger
and more complex … it takes a touch of genius and
a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”
Albert Einstein

You may have read thousands of articles on leadership, read hundreds of books, and been to the odd workshop or two. But I can guarantee when talking about leadership, they all say pretty much the same things:

• You’ve got to know where you are now (face reality).
• You’ve got to get clear on where you’re going, including a better place and a bigger place (have a vision).
• You’ve got to plan how you’re going to get there and overcome the roadblocks you’ll encounter along the way (know the path).
• You’ve got to determine the time, energy, money, and people required to do so (know the resources).
• You’ve got to excite others and yourself to exceptional performance along the way (engage the people).
• You’ve got to constantly adjust your sails (have behavioural flexibility).

That’s it. It’s that simple. Now, notice I didn’t say it was easy. Not at all. But it’s not as complicated as it’s made out to be. Sure, each of those steps involves a lot of work and sub-steps, and the execution can’t always be perfected, but again, it’s not that complicated.

It becomes complicated because we lose heart, we lose focus, we lose us, and we forget who we are and who we can be. In this book, you’ll learn about the concept of Leaders for Life which will help you with that focus. It will help with keeping your energy and the energy of others around you alive.

Leadership is an attitude and a set of skills, both of which you can learn. All it takes is practice, practice, practice.

Empowering belief 3: I can dramatically transform my leadership in seven weeks and continue to refine it for the rest of my days

This book won’t make you the US president or the head of Apple in seven weeks. That may take a little longer. And it’s not even the individual tweaks by themselves that do it. It’s the compounding effect of those small tweaks over time.

“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.”
Albert Einstein

Mathematically, it works like this: if you get 1 per cent better and keep doing that 1 per cent daily, it won’t take you one hundred days to get 100 per cent better. It will only take seventy. That’s the power of compounding.

Frankly, I think seventy days is too long. What I can promise is a ...

Table of contents

• FOREWORD
• PREFACE – WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
• THE PROMISE
• PART 1, DIGGING FOR DIAMONDS
• COLLECTIVE MYTHS REGARDING LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
• ROADBLOCKS AND BARRIERS TO YOUR SUCCESS
• LEADERS FOR LIFE
• YOUR LEADERSHIP DIAMOND — AN OVERVIEW
• PART 2, THE FACETS
• FACET 1: LEADING SELF
• FACET 2: LEADING ONE ON ONE
• FACET 3: LEADING TEAMS
• FACET 4: LEADING CLIENTS
• FACET 5: LEADING THE ORGANISATION
• FACET 6: LEADING FAMILY & FRIENDS
• FACET 7: LEADING COMMUNITY
• PART 3, KEEP POLISHING
• SO WHAT WILL YOUR LEGACY BE?
• FINAL FOOD FOR THOUGHT
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• REFERENCES
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• HOW CAN WE HELP?