Leadership Myth #1

Happy Saturday!  Today, I am finishing off the week with the #1 MYTH associated with being in leadership.  The number 1 myth is:

Leadership is a system of tasks that you do!

WOW!  I am have been working on putting systems in place over the last few weeks to help my business.  I truly believed that if I had good systems of follow-up, I would be able to be a better leader.  Sounds crazy, right?  My business has been changing over the last six months and I have been blessed with many more opportunities to share the gift of Thirty One.  I consider it a blessing from God…I can’t take any credit for it.  I mean, on any given day – I am a hot mess in my office, as a leader and in my personal life.  There are days when I just can’t seem to get it together.

The #1 TRUTH shared by Dana Wilde is that

Leadership is who you are!  

It is those skills that you have, whether you know it or not.  What are the traits or things that you look for in a leader?  For me, when I looked for a “sponsor” with Thirty One – I wanted someone who was honest, kind, encouraging, had a strong faith, supportive but tough and most of all – one who had a successful business.  If those are the traits that I was looking for in others, then according to Dana, these are the traits that I needed to develop in myself.  So, I need to do an honest self-evaluation to see if these are skills that I already had OR if they were skills that I needed to develop in order to be a good leader.

We are our own toughest judge of character, looking at the flaws before we look at the positives.  Admit it, I am not alone, right?  So, what are the things that YOU are looking for in a leader?  Maybe when you joined Thirty One (or your direct sales company), you weren’t thinking of these things.  You joined under someone because: you liked their personality, they asked you, they were recommended to you by a friend, or you had a common thread (kids, work, school, etc).  Now, you are thinking about leadership, what are the skills that this person has that will help you grow into leadership?  If they don’t have the skills, who do you look up to for those skills?  Write them down.  Figure out what your strong skills are then work on the ones that you struggle with to develop them in yourself.

Leadership isn’t all about the money (although it helps).  Leadership is about sharing your strengths, hopes and experiences (the good, the bad and the ugly) with others to help them reach their goals.  I truly believe that the most successful leaders that I know are open books – willing to share all aspects of their business including their successes and their failures.

Are you ready to be an open book?  What are the things you want from a leader?  Make the list and then develop those same skills in yourself.  I look forward to hearing about YOUR journey into leadership.

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!