Habitual vs. Situational Leaders

Leadership Moment asserts that there are two types of leaders: Habitual leaders and Situational leaders.

Habitual leaders are the natural ones, who tend to be good at leading whatever group they are in. They feel natural taking charge and running point on just about any project. They lead out of habit.

Situational leaders are those people who make up the majority of the population. Most of them don’t even feel like leaders—until they find the right situation that fits their passions and their strengths. Once in the area of their strength, they come alive and become the right one to lead in that particular situation.

Whether you are a stay-at-home mom or a business executive, you can exercise influence and leadership in your life. Experts believe the most introverted of people will influence 10,000 others in an average lifetime. In others words, every one of us, even the shy ones, are influencing people around them. If you became intentional about the way you influence others, imagine the impact you could have!

Remember, leadership is influence -- nothing more, nothing less!

Also check out the Leadership Moment Daily Podcasts.

To lead is to serve...
Coach Carolyn

Favorite Leadership Quotes

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." ~Dwight Eisenhower

"I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?" ~Benjamin Disraeli

"Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men -- the other 999 follow women." ~Groucho Marx

Lead Yourself First

One of the first steps to becoming an effective leader and to be in healthy relationships is to possess the right attitude. John Maxwell defines an attitude as the outward behavior of an inward feeling. To have a healthy attitude, we must spend time looking within and working on what is not working. We cannot lead others if we cannot lead ourselves first.

Leading ourselves first means definitely knowing what our strengths are but also knowing our limitations. And in knowing our limitations, we can be humble enough to say, "I'm sorry, I don't know. But let's find out." When someone below you on the food chain knows that you are not afraid to fail, then failing won't be looked at as final. You can set the example that although you may not have all the answers (and tell me who does), but that a true leader is willing to admit it and move on.

Being Servant Leader

“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.

The difference manifest itself in the care taken by the servant - first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer , is: do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, will they not be further deprived?”

From the Servant As Leader published by Robert Greenleaf, 1970.

In order to be an effective leader, we must be servant first. When I teach this concept, my students frown, smirk, or make some strange noise. Why? Because the first thing one thinks of when hearing the word servant is being taken advantage of, being thought of as weak, or being walked over.

But this is not what Greenleaf was talking about when he coined the term back in 1970. He spoke of putting others' needs, not wants, ahead of our own. Thinking of our workmates as people, and not as merely "hired hands." That phrase came into use because that was all that was needed, hands; not minds, not hearts, just hands. This should not be the case today. Everyone has worth and value and should be treated as a unique expression of the Divine.

When we can see others as poeple with fears, desires, and goals, then we can treat them as such. But if we treat others as objects, only as a means to an end, then what will the relationship speak of?

This is one of the principles of servant leadership; to treat others as people of worth and value. Think of someone in your life who you absolutely value and would give any amount of time to and for. Someone you would move mountains for. Now think about how you behave around them. Now go to all and do likewise!

To lead is to serve...
Coach Carolyn

Leadership is Influence

Welcome to the blog of the Women's Spiritual Life and Leadership Institute. I am so pleased to be able to serve you the readers and leaders in the community. It is my prayer that you will return here often to be equipped, empowered, encouraged, and edified in your journey to being more effective leaders and communicators as you build strong and lasting relationships in all areas of your life.

To begin, I have been teaching and coaching leadership for several years now and I want to share my absolute favorite definition of leadership. My leadership guru is Dr. John C. Maxwell and I will be sharing his wisdom here quite often. He says, "Leadership is influence -- nothing more, nothing less." This is it in a nutshell, as they say. This will be the foundation of this site and its mission.

Everyone influences someone. It doesn't matter who you are or what you do for a living. If your life connects in someway with someone else's, then you have the opportunity to influence. Wikipedia defines influence as the ability to indirectly control or affect the actions of other people or things.

Think about this: Mohandas Gandhi was an influencer, but so was Adolph Hitler. The question is what kind of influence are you having? Are you influencing positively or negatively? What is your life saying about you to those you are in relationship with? To those you merely come in contact with? Does your life and your actions match up? Do you say one thing and do something else? What kind of attitude do you show to the world?

We will explore these issues in this space. If your relationships totally suck, think about what you are bringing to the party!

To lead is to serve...
Coach Carolyn