Welcome to the Deploy Yourself Newsletter, where I share what impactful leadership looks like to show your own power. I also share the most insightful lessons and stories I encountered in the last two weeks. You can also read this issue online.
Hey,
Do you prioritise being liked more than growing those around you?
Your primary task as a leader is to create more leaders around you, not more followers.
You build followers when you prioritise being liked.
You build leaders when you challenge those on your team to learn and grow.
I get it. We all want to be liked. Especially by our team. But ask yourself –
- Can you risk the possibility of not being liked for creating a better team and organisation?
- Can you risk staying in the uncomfortable space of not knowing and not having full control?
The next time you are tempted to say or do something (usually a habit) because others will like you, stop yourself.
Turn it into a growth opportunity instead:
- Remember to play the coach, instead of always playing the captain. Set clear expectations, listen for a full-body YES, and then give people what they need to do their job.
- Ask the right questions – Instead of the temptation of providing answers and showing how much you know, acknowledge that your knowledge is holding your team back. Learn to ask questions that force others to think, introspect, and discover what you know for themselves.
- Do not make yourself indispensable. Make yourself redundant. Your real success is when your team can do the job without you. That is what ultimately sets apart great leaders – they build great teams.
Ready to make a powerful start to 2023 and make it your best year ever?
I will be hosting a free public talk in December on how to make a powerful start to 2023.
If you would like to know more, click here.
Fascinating Articles & Stories
One
“We’re business. We’re not an army” – Natalie Kaminski
I interviewed Natalie Kaminski on the Choosing Leadership podcast. She talks about trusting your decisions, the power of taking a break, and the importance of being empathetic. Below are some show notes:
- You have to treat your employees as children in a right and you allow your children to make mistakes, and that’s how to learn to walk.
- I want to understand what happened instead of coming to that employee and being, How could you have done this? The question is, what do you think went wrong? What could you have done differently?
- If they take ownership, There are two things that happen. First of all, they see that you’re trying to help them grow. Second of all, they remember that lesson and it, they retain it in their mind. So the likelihood of the same issue occurring again decreases dramatically.
- Ultimately your goal as a leader is to build that relationship with your team so that they come to you. It has nothing to do with fear of punishment or repercussion or anything like that.
- So it’s my job to serve them, to empower them to then service our clients, which in turn helps me accomplish my goal of building a, larger and more successful organization.
Listen to the entire episode.
Two
Leading from Fear vs Leading from Love
I interviewed Ennio R. Neumann Senese on the Choosing Leadership podcast. We talk about nature vs nurture, how we are shaped as individuals, and how growing up in an entrepreneurial family shaped him. He shared a couple of serendipitous moments which have turned out to be instrumental in his journey. We touched upon the important role of meditation in helping him stay balanced as a leader, and how his leadership style has evolved over the years.
- There are so many books about leadership. If you have read them all, the risk is that by the end, you still don’t know what leadership is.
- So I’m very grateful for the fact that I’ve been able to fail. On a couple of occasions, which gave me the opportunity to learn and to see that there are better ways to move on.
- In the end, you need to ask yourself, what am I doing? Is that what I’m contributing to? Is that really something that is contributing to, the better of mankind, to improve the world to have some, another type of gold than just purely commercial?
- I always recommend also to people who work with me to do a bit of a retreat for a couple of days in complete silence and just think about, the purpose of life, things that you are grateful for, things that you have experienced, lessons learned, over a period of time.
- In the end, it’s always about reflection and the ability to see how unimportant you really are at the end.
Listen to the entire episode.
Three
Detailed reports for your leadership
This is the 66th edition of this newsletter which I started 2.5 years ago. I hope it continues to add value. Please share any feedback when it does or does not.
As a show of gratitude, I want to share some research reports I often share with my coaching clients.
These reports have been a result of my experience and research leading teams, making mistakes, and slowly growing in my own leadership. I hope you will find these valuable as well. These are :
- Care To Lead: Why There Is No Leading Without Caring (download here)
- The Listening Habit: The One Habit Which Enables All Others (download here)
- Fearless Feedback: Recognise Feedback For The Gift That It Is (download here)
That’s it for now. If you have any questions or feedback, or if you are new and want to introduce yourself, hit reply. I read and respond to every reply. All the best,
Sumit
P.S. – I am looking to interview more inspirational leaders on my podcast. If you know anyone I should interview, reply back with their name.
(Twitter) @SumitGupta
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