Awaken the Energy of Leadership Within

Times have changed and leadership is undergoing an evolution. Leadership is no longer confined to those at the top of organizations, indeed it is no longer confined to those working within organizations. Leadership is becoming an essential skill for us all; it offers us many insights into how we as individuals become the leaders of our own lives, how we can harness the energy of our own internal leadership to enable us to show up with our whole selves to our lives, both professionally and personally.

Many motivational experts like to say that leaders are made, not born and yet in many ways I would argue the exact opposite. After working within corporate leadership development for many years I have come to realise that the skills of leadership are often about unlea
ing the things that don't work for you as a leader, rather than learning more of the latest tools and techniques. I believe we are all natural born leaders that have been deprogrammed along the way. As children we were natural leaders; we knew what we wanted from life and with a vivid imagination and a child's natural curiosity we were determined to get what we wanted. Think of the children you know, I bet they have clarity, the ability to inspire, motivate and influence those around them, to innocently engage others in helping them to achieve their goals. So why is it so difficult to do as adults? What happened to us along the way that means we need to read countless books, and attend leadership development courses to find our way forward?

I guess you could say we became socialized. As children we became used to hearing "No", "Don't" and "Can't", our parents or other adults will have told us to be quiet, controlling our behavior until we learned what was acceptable to the adults around us. We went to school which reinforced this learning, and many of us will have gone onto further education, which reinforces compliant behavior, teaching us as students how to fit within an institutionalized system, succeeding by achieving good grades. Unfortunately our mainstream education system doesn't teach students how to become leaders; instead of learning to become creative, independent, self-reliant thinkers, most people learn how to obey and follow the rules, and as a consequence we lose contact with our inner selves.

The energy of your natural leadership lies hidden deep within, it remains there waiting to be rediscovered, however much your light may have faded over the years. Finding it requires a process of unlea
ing, the courage to explore your own inner attic, uncovering the dusty bookshelves where your childhood dreams lie and peeking inside to your very core. It is time to honor your inner child, to remember your unsocialized hopes for the future, of what mattered to you back then, what you wanted to achieve at the very heart of your soul.

Take a moment to consider what has happened to your childhood dreams? To those "unrealistic" ambitions you embraced, the passion you had for becoming or achieving something great? Perhaps now is the time for them to rise again to the surface, to find their energy, to motivate you to make some different choices? But first you need to reconnect and awaken the energy of leadership which lies deep within. Here are some steps you can use to get back in touch with your own unique inner leader:

Build a relationship with yourself - how much time do you spend with yourself? Yes, just you doing things for yourself and only yourself. We often put ourselves at the bottom of our lists, and can find ourselves easily giving our energy away to everyone else leaving little for ourselves. Make some time for you, get to know yourself again. Who are you? What do you really like to do? What are your values? What is important to you to make your life a success? What would be 100% for you? How can you make sure you are not impersonating yourself but showing up with your whole self to your life? Explore - you may learn something!

Be humble - when you are humble you become genuinely interested in others, you are good at listening as you know that you can learn from them. This humility allows you to develop your curiosity, your thirst for knowledge, always wanting to better yourself, to improve and grow. When people sense you are genuinely interested in them, and listening to them, they will be naturally interested in you, listening actively to what you have to say.

Follow your bliss - what makes you happy? What do you love to do? Regardless of how busy you are, always take the time to do what you love doing. When you are an alive, energetic person this vitalizes others, not to mention the affect it has on your own energy! Whatever it is that brings you joy, set aside some time each week to fulfill your passion - your life and the lives of those around you will be all the richer for it.

Dream big - if you want to be larger than life you need a dream that is larger than life. Small dreams won't serve you or anyone else. It takes the same amount of time to dream big as it does small so you may as well max it up! Write down your one biggest dream - the one that excites you most. Go for gold - make it really big. Then list every single reason why you CAN achieve your dream instead of worrying about why you can't.

Vision - Life can feel directionless without a vision. If you can't see yourself winning the award or feel the tears of triumph running down your face its unlikely that you will get there. Time to visualize your own personal dream and then to experience what it would be like to accomplish your dream. Use all of your senses see it, hear it, smell it, taste it and feel it happening deep within your body. Enjoy!

Be yourself - sounds so simple, but it can be challenging to do! It may take a little unpacking internally to understand what is you, and what belongs to other people within your values, beliefs and behaviors. Just know you are in there somewhere. It can help to go back in time and consider yourself as a child, before you were impacted by countless people and life experiences. Once you find yourself be yourself, be your best self, always competing against yourself, seeking self-improvement. Become a first rate you instead of a second rate somebody else.

Radiate - Finally, be a radiator not a drain, to yourself and those around you. By radiating you give freely and activate a universal law "life gives to the giver and takes from the taker". if you want more love, respect and support give more love, respect and support. Help others. Contribute to your local community. Be abundant, live abundantly inviting others to do the same. As Sir Winston Churchill once said "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give"