I see very often in my training that people come to learn ways and techniques to better manage others.
How to get them more committed to better results, how to improve performance in a team, how to drive a project or process towards a goal.
Of course, this is all true and we talk about these issues in the training sessions.
And we need to discuss them.
But the most important issue on every leader’s desk should be the question of whether and how I lead myself.
This is not just about time management or developing skills, learning new management techniques, etc.
These are very deep unconscious parts of us taken over by the management of parts within us – our deep fears; experiences from a time when we couldn’t talk and can’t access them by talking; my deep beliefs; the emotions that hold life back and whose unexpressed consequences we see in the form of different symptoms in the body; automatic reactions in stressful situations (e.g. traffic).
And so much more.
In order to lead others, you have to be constantly engaged in making the invisible visible within yourself.
For we can only manage what is visible.
That which has a visible root cause.
And this is not a one-off.
It is an ongoing and lifelong journey.
As a leader, it is an extra responsibility to actually do this – because the impact of a leader on people is clearly underestimated, while the impact on results is clearly overestimated.
It is for this reason that, in ancient times, leaders were those who were truly mature as human beings.
They were the ones you went to for advice and inspiration on how to be even more Human.
They themselves were not interested in leading others, but people followed them.
A very important point for today in my view.
