Leadership Position: Find Your Center and Keep It

Leadership Position: Find Your Center and Keep It

When I leave the house each morning to say goodbye to my loved ones, I often say "Keep Your Center" as a last reminder to them, before they head out the door to start their day.

It is my advice and my reminder to them - that throughout the day - they will most likely experience all kinds of emotional, intellectual and most importantly, spiritual assaults on their character, their position on a given topic, discussion or event, their actions or even their intentions. These assaults on their personhood have the potential to cause them to do harm to themselves and to others by influencing them, or impacting them in such a way as to cause them to act "against themselves".

Small daily failures, medium sized muck-ups and disastrous tragedies are all the result of a betrayal of our core selves, in my opinion, and when we betray ourselves we diminish our ability to stand up for ourselves and to stand our ground.  We're persuaded to go have "a quick beer" with a friend when earlier in the day we've promised ourselves that tonight is the night we will resume our workouts after a 6-day hiatus from the gym. We have the pizza at the office party lunch when we've just made it to within 2 pounds of our weight loss goal. We go along with a work team's decision that we don't agree with because we want to be seen as a positive team player. We refrain from telling our boss and our teammates about a nagging and important concern - because we don't want to see the dismissive looks or feel the conflict associated with our recent and regular frustrations that seem "too difficult" or "too troublesome" to voice.  We follow rules and Standard Operating Procedures that are not in the best interest of our customers because we say to ourselves "these are not my rules" or "I just want to do what I need to do to keep the peace or to keep my job".

I once worked with a group of consultants who, for the Sales and Marketing group of a global pharmaceutical company, tried to quantify the financial impact of the organization's inability to "Stand-Up" or an individual professional's  inability to "Stand-his/her-Ground". Our initial estimates quantified the losses in efficiencies between $20 and $50 million a year and these losses were attributed to only this one division.

I imagine too, that the intangible impacts such as loss of self and team respect, the loss of safety and security within the team that enabled them to nurture authenticity and integrity- were even greater.

One of my own greatest struggles in life is to constantly find the internal strength and fortitude to, day after day and sometimes hour after hour, stand up for myself and stand my ground. People and other forces continually ask me and drive me to depart from what I value and believe. It's as if the dilithium crystals for my internal "force field" require constant refueling.

In my business and in my work with Strong Point Strategy, I recognize and feel that many of my clients and their employees fight the same battle. This constant barrage to our center of values and beliefs - and the energy and effort it takes to defend these values and beliefs - often leaves us feeling - well - drained at best - exhausted at worst.

Here's a quick Strong Point Tip - and a tool you can use to help you find and keep your center. These tools can be used in conjunction with your yoga, meditation, breathing and other calming and spiritual strengthening techniques.

Find three sheets of lined paper - and at the Top of Sheet 1 write "Core Values" - at the Top of Sheet 2 write "Core Beliefs" and at the Top of Sheet 3 write "Recent Actions to Defend".

 

Then just do a "Core Dump" of your Core Values by filling in the blank "I Value" as many lines fill the page. Do the same for Core Beliefs. Fill the page by completing the phase "I Believe" as many times as you can.  Review both lists in detail and prioritize these list into a "Top Ten" organized by most important Value/Belief to next important (1 to 10). If you can find the time, shrink these lists to wallet size, laminate them and place them in your wallet for daily review (or as often as needed).

The third list "Actions to Defend" I personally create a 5X9 version of the page (I created a Visio Version) and insert it into my day planner. This way, when I feel really stressed and weary from the "keeping my center" battle, I remind myself how many times I've defended my values and beliefs today or this week by logging it on the list.

Somehow these small wins remind me of how often I do strengthen my "force field", my resolve and my faith in my own ability to stand-up for my values and beliefs and stand my ground. These simple tools often help me keep my center.

So now when I say to you "Keep Your Center" - like I say to my loved ones, you don't need to check my wallet to see what I mean. Check your own :) and keep strengthening your core value.