inner leadership.pdf

The Inner Game Of Leadership: Leading From Within

By Shaun Killian (MEd, MLead)

Inner leadership is the foundation upon which all

other leadership competencies are based. It is

important at every level of leadership, yet its

importance actually grows as leaders move to higher

levels. 1 This article draws together a range of

leadership literature and research, to describe what is

involved in inner leadership and how you might go

about improving your inner game.

combined with an accurate assessment of what is so

now and just a little imagination, you can create truly

powerful visions of what you can bring about. Armed

with a genuine passion to bring about a future that is

better than the present, inner leaders position

themselves well to enrol those around them in their

vision. They become optimistic dealers of hope, even

when confronted with setbacks. Without such a

genuinepassion,‘vision’islittlemorethanabuzz

word and ‘visioning’ no more than a mechanistic

planning process.

The Six Pillars of Inner Leadership

Pillar One: Personal Purpose & Vision

The most effective leaders know who they are and

what they believe in. They have a strong sense of

personal purpose 2 and they translate this into

successive, specific visions of what they would like to

achieve. Peter Senge 3 refers to this as living your life,

including your work, from a creative point of view –

investing your time, energy and passion into creating

realities from what was once just an idea about what

could be in the future.

Pillar Two: Character

Leadership character is all about our behaviours.

“We don’t have to say very

much because what we do

thunders so loudly that no one

hears the words we are saying.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I went into the woods,

Because I wanted to live

deliberately,

I wanted to live deep,

And suck the marrow out of life.

To put to rest all that was not

life,

And not, when it came time to

die,

Discover that I had not lived”

Henry Thoreau

These behaviours are influenced by our personality,

our abilities and our values; yet none of these factors

take away from our ability to choose. Inner leadership

requires leaders to act with integrity and honour.

Management commentator, the late Peter Drucker,

calls on leaders to be the kind of people that they

would like to see in the mirror each morning 4 .

According to Drucker, character, unlike values does

not change from organisation to organisation, culture

to culture or over time. Recently, this assertion has

been backed by research conducted by Christopher

Peterson and Martin Seligman. Five universal aspects

of leadership character 5 are:

Many people experience an altered shift of

perspective when they experience grief and loss – for

example the death of a loved one, recovery from a

serious illness, losing a high status job or a significant

failure at work. Yet it is possible to find your purpose

and passion at any time. Through continually

reflecting on what is important to us

1. Doing unto others as you would have them do

unto you.

2. Refraining from treating others in ways that

you would not like to be treated.

3. The courage to stand up for other people and

what you believe is right, even in the face of

personal risk and ridicule.

4. Being genuine in all of your interactions with

others.

5. Being honest, open and straightforward in

what you say.

This self confidence translates itself into taking on

challenges that move beyond the dreary safety of

what is easy into the realm of what is risky and hard.

Research shows that the most successful leaders take

on challenges where there is an approximately equal

chance of failure as there is of success 8 . In the words

of Thomas Edison,

Character does not come from one-off displays of

righteous behaviour, but rather through patterns of

behaviour over time. The day-to-day behaviours of a

leader determine their character as much if not more

so than rising to the occasion in times of crises.

“You must learn to fail

intelligently. Failing is one of the

greatest arts in the world. One

fails forwards towards success.”

Pillar Three: A Belief in Yourself

Inner leaders have an unshakable confidence in who

they are and in their ability to succeed. Research

shows that this sense of self assurance contributes to

the charisma dimension of transformational

leadership, 6 instilling a sense of confidence in the staff

being led.

Thomas Edison

Pillar Four: Self Awareness

Effective inner leaders have a deep and accurate

awareness of themselves and how this impacts on

their leadership effectiveness.

Self confidence is grounded in a belief that we are

worthy human beings. Without such a belief leaders

may find themselves excessively trying to please

others, avoiding assertive behaviour and being self

conscious in social interactions. Van Velsor and

Drath, identify three distinctly different sets of beliefs

about self that are relevant to inner leadership 7 :

Such awareness includes an accurate appraisal of your

strengths and weaknesses. You could use existing

performance-review data, self-assessments, 360

degree assessments or the alternate processes known

as feedback analysis and life events that are outlined

in the sidebar.

1. Self Reading - where identity and worth come

from the reactions of those around you.

2. Self Authoring – where identity and worth are

evaluated separately from how others view

you.

3. Self Revising – where identity but not worth is

seen as a both stable yet fluid, adapting

responsively to both new internal insights and

changes in the external environment.

Once you have identified your strengths, place

yourself into leadership positions that are in need of

what you have to offer. Finding a position that best

fits your strengths is a reliable way to ensure that you

shine as leader 9 .

A failure by leaders to recognise their strengths is also

the source of many leadership performance

problems 10 . Effective leaders know what they are

good at and selectively apply their strengths to

maximise their leadership impact. Yet, they also guard

against strengths being overdone, to the point where

they are counter -productive. Leaders are also very

aware of t heir weaknesses, especially those that are

important within their context. These important

weaknesses need to be offset, either through drawing

onothers’strengthsorthroughdevelopment

It is this sense of security that sits behind a leader’s

ability

promote

themselves

through

unconventional behaviour.

Yet, self confidence is more than a belief that you are

worthwhile – it is a belief in your ability to succeed in

the particular environment you are in. Such an

optimistic outlook should not be confused with either

arrogance or with wishful thinking. Rather it manifests

itself as hope and a fierce determination to persist

and do whatever it takes despite any setbacks you

may encounter along the way.

It is also important to be aware of how you prefer to

work or how you work best. Peter Drucker tells the

story of how presidencies have been made or

devastated by leaders’ lack of knowledge about

themselves 11 . Some questions to ask:

 Do you take information in best through

reading and reflection, or through listening

and discussion?

 How do I work best with people?

 What are my preferred ways of learning?

 Am I better at making and following through

on decisions or carefully considering the

options?

 Am I more task orientated or people

orientated?

These people, in addition to showing self discipline,

accepted responsibility for being in control of their

own lives. Like you, they each would have many other

people making demands on their time, but they

understand that the way a leader spends their time

each day is a matter of conscious choice. Inner

leadership involves making disciplined and conscious

choices each day.

Armed with such knowledge, leaders can:

Pillar Six: Personal Accountability

Inner leaders have a strong internal locus of control.

By contrast, leaders with an external locus of control

blamethe‘they’departmentwithintheirorganisation

or excuse themselves as being at the helpless mercy

oftheir‘they’withthoughtssuchas if only they would

... give more resources ... send me better staff ... stop

interfering ... etc. Rather than engaging in blaming

and excusing inner leaders look for how they have

contributed to the current state of affairs and how

they can contribute to making things better in the

future. This can take a deal of courage, for it involves

seeing how your own actions or inactions have

contributed to a problem situation. It is safer to hide

behind the belief that things are beyond our control,

as Nelson Mandela points out with the words:

 Reshape their position, work systems and

work environment to better suit how they

work best.

 Consciously step outside of their preferred

ways of operating when the situation

demands it.

Pillar Five: Self Control

“Lack of self control is a primary

reason many leaders do not

succeed.” 12

Gene Klann

neffectiveleader’sconfidencetotakecalculated

risks is balanced with unwavering self-discipline. Self

disciplinereferstoaperson’sabilitytokeeptheir

behaviours, passions and impulses under the direct

control of your will. This includes the willpower to

follow through on those things that are good for you

but which may arouse your interest.

“Our greatest fear is not that we

are powerless, it is that we are

powerful beyond measure”

Nelson Mandela

Rather than waiting in vain for circumstances beyond

their control to be better, inner leaders live by the

motto what can I do with what I have now ? They

accept responsibility for the impact of their own

actions and inactions, whilst looking forward towards

a better future.

JohnHoward’smorningwalksareagreatexampleof

self discipline and willpower Thomas Friedman’s

success as a newspaper columnist has been linked to

his disciplined routine. He woke at 5am every

morning, wrote for three hours, played a round of golf

and then went into the office.

Developing Your Inner Game

those who have shaped who you are in the

past. Add to this by reading inspiring

biographies.

Developing Pillar One: Personal Purpose &

Vision

Personal purpose and vision can be surfaced through

prompted reflection. Consider for a moment your

dreams of the future. What would you like to see? For

each dream, go deeper by considering what it is that

achieving your dream would bring you. For example –

the dream of being CEO may be underpinned by

different needs in different people. For one person it

may be about providing a legacy of financial security

for their family, for another, it may be about

quenching a strong desire to achieve that which has

not yet been achieved. By taking the time to identify

the motives underpinning your dreams you begin to

see what matters most to you and in turn open new

possibilities for how those needs can be met. Expand

your initial thinking by considering 13 :

Feedback Analysis

Feedback analysis was developed in the fourteenth century by a

German theologian and was subsequently adopted by the Jesuit

order.

It is a simple but powerful technique that provides insight not

available through any other means. Peter Senge highlights how,

in reality, cause and effect are often separated by large periods

of time – making learning from experience quite difficult. This

process identifies your strengths and weaknesses b looking at

the long term effects of your leadership.

 Write down you key decisions or actions in a journal,

along with how you expect things to turn out.

 Wait 6-12 months and review how your original

expectations compare to how things actually turned

out.

 Each week, write down any new key decisions or

actions and key decisions or actions from six months

ago.

 What brings you joy and happiness?

 What brings you a sense of achievement?

 Who do you care about?

 What legacy would you like to leave?

Feedback analysis takes time, but by practising it over a 2 year

period you can get a good idea of both your strengths and

weaknesses by exploring the actual as opposed to the intended

impact of your actions.

Inner leaders develop personal mastery to a level of

subconscious competence. We are subconsciously

competent at many tasks such as walking, eating or

driving a car. Subconscious competence does not just

happen; it takes sustained practice to reach a level of

competence where you seem to be able to do things

automatically. The same is true for personal purpose

and vision. Practices such as meditation and reflective

journaling can keep what matters to you most at the

forefront of your mind. Visualising the achievement of

specific visions is another useful technique.

Life Events

Thinkbackoveryourlifeandidentifythose‘keyevents’that

have shaped who you are today – both as a person and as a

leader. Use your journal to explore each key event:

 How did you get involved in the situation?

 How did you feel at the time?

 What do you feel about it now?

 How did the event shape who you are today?

 What insight does it give you about who you are as

both a person and a leader?

Developing Pillar Two: Character

Whilst character is influenced by genetics and the

environment in which you were brought up, it can be

further developed throughout adulthood. Four ways

to develop your leadership character 14 are to:

2. Journaling: Reflect on and write in your

journal about challenging ethical dilemmas. If

they are dilemmas facing you now this can

help you make the right rather than the

popular choice. You can also write about and

evaluateyouractionsinpastdilemmasDon’t

be too hard on yourself but focus on learning

1. Emulating Role Models: Seek out and

emulate worthy role models. Consider what

you admire about those close to you and

from experience and applying these ethical

lessons to future dilemmas.

3. Discussion: Get together with a group of

other leaders and discuss ethical challenges

each of you have faced. Repeat these sessions

periodically.

4. Evaluation: Use self reflection and

behavioural feedback to evaluate how your

habitual behaviours compare against your

own and the organisations values.

through your results over the phone (eg

http://www.mbtionline.net.au ) . However, many

people prefer to do this within the social structure of

a workshop. Organising a team development program

for your staff boosts morale and it is a fun way to find

out about yourself and others.

360 degree assessments provide a more challenging

yet worthwhile way to increase your awareness of

how you are perceived as a leader. The Australian

Leadership Development Centre firmly believes that

360 degree assessments have the most value when

they are used exclusively for developmental purposes

and when the report remains the property of the

person concerned.

Developing Pillar Three: A Belief in Yourself

Research shows that self esteem can be developed

simply by taking the time to reflect on and write about

the elements of self esteem and how these apply

within your context. Reflective journaling can be used

to explore questions such as:

Two additional methods for increasing your self-

awareness,“lifeevents”and“feedbackanalysis”are

outlined within separate sidebars in the article.

 What messages did you receive as a child and

adolescent about how valuable you are?

 What feedback are you currently getting from

those around you?

 What other experiences have shaped how you

view yourself?

Developing Pillar Five: Self-Control

Self control can be developed through a combination

of practical and intuitive strategies.

Use meditation and journaling to keep those things

that are most important to you at the forefront of

your mind – including your responses to the four

questions you asked yourself when developing your

personal vision:

You can also use reflective journaling to identify faulty

and unhelpful thinking traps such as:

 Beingcaughtinthe‘Ishould be’modeand

feeling unworthy if you are not.

 Comparing yourself to siblings and others.

 Rating

your

worth

through

your

 What brings you joy and happiness?

 What brings you a sense of achievement?

 Who do you care about?

 What legacy would you like to leave?

achievements.

 Believing everyone should like, respect or

admire you in a professional capacity.

Take stock of how much time, money and energy you

have devoted to each of your responses above in the

last week, identifying gaps and areas that may be

overdone. This allows you to see where higher

investments are needed whilst also identifying where

the extra time, resources or energy may come from.

Each week, get in the habit of scheduling a balanced

range of activities that are important to you.

Behind these reflective techniques is a belief that you

and every human being in the world is worthwhile

because of the humanness – including their

shortcomings. This does not mean we should not

strive to improve – learning is part of life, but rather

we should accept the things we cannot change. Other

people respond to you the way you respond to

yourself.

Practice mind over mattress each morning, rising early

and following set routines before launching into the

rest of the day.

Developing Pillar Four: Self-Awareness

The easiest and perhaps least threatening way to

deepen your self-awareness is through psychometric

self-assessments such as the MBTI, FIRO-B, TKI and

CPI. Today, you can do this online and be talked

Throughoutthedaypractisebeing‘mindful’andfully

present with the people and things around you.

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