Cultivating Leadership

“Leadership is cultivated in the garden of adversity.”  I think I coined that phrase today.  I googled it and nothing like it came up in my search….sooooooo, I guess it’s mine.  I’ve been thinking a lot about change, leadership, adversity, and other topics the last week.  I know what leadership is.  Leadership is about influence and relationships and differs from management in the fact that management is about control.  People who desire to be leaders drift into management when they feel they have to control everything about everything.  I’ve worked alongside some of those…I’ve been that person in my life.

Adversity is a fact of life.  Everyone knows that adversity will find them at some point or another.  It’s how we handle those times of adversity that reveals our leadership level.  When under pressure do we slide into a more management role, start to control those things we can, and worry about the things we can’t?  Do we allow things to continue to spiral out of control?  Or do we lead from the front?  Do we allow what we have learned as a leader shine through?

Everything we face can be divided into three categories:

1.  Things within my power to change

2.  Things within my power to influence

3.  Things outside my power to change

Take out number three.  No sense worrying about things you cannot change, regardless of what it is.  That’s not to say that we should put our heads in the sand and not keep those things in the back of our minds.  These categories are fluid.  Things that are outside of our control sometimes move into our realm of influence and even into the realm of going within your power to change. 

Influence those situations and people with whom you can.  You can’t control them, but you can influence them in certain ways.  How we react to those people or situations show us how we grow as a leader. 

Change those things you can.  If you have direct responsibilities in a certain area, you can affect change in those areas.  Don’t change things for change’s sake, but do look for areas of opportunity to get better, to make you better, to make your team better.  Set goals for change and then work to meet those goals. 

The biggest area of opportunity lies within us.  We have the power to change us.  Read, learn, have conversations, all for the express purpose of growing yourself and your leadership potential.  Even what I call “trash reading,” reading that has nothing to do with your vocation or personal growth (reading for fun), can be used to glean truth. 

When adversity comes your way, ask yourself three questions before you act:

1.  Is this within my power to change?  If it is, set goals to change it.

2.  Is this within my power to influence but not change right away?  If it is, begin to influence in ways you can.

3.  Is this outside my power to change?  If it is, monitor the situation.  It may never move up the scale to be a situation you can change, but it might. 

Be open to feedback.  Ask those you trust, and those who have leadership over you to give you areas of opportunity to grow yourself. 

When adversity comes act, don’t react.  Work through it, and you will see your leadership potential grow.