THE 5 MOST DESTRUCTIVE HABITS OF WELL-MEANING YET OFF-PURPOSE PROFESSIONALS (…AND HOW TO CHANGE THEM!)
The lack of authenticity sucks. It sucks the productivity, performance, morale, innovation, engagement, retention, and progress right out of a team or company. And, often unidentified by the perpetrator, it sucks potential, advancement, fulfillment, and success out of the leader as well. Everybody loses.
Having good intentions is nice but the bottom line doesn’t care about that. Neither does the leader’s team. Inauthenticity is born from a lack of self-awareness, introspection, and personal growth and transformation. Inauthenticity is related to a lack of clarity about one’s innate life purpose. It doesn’t happen accidentally.
Here are five of the most destructive habits of well-meaning yet off-purpose business leaders, and what to do about them:
1. They create mistrust.
If a leader isn’t clear on who they are and how their actions impact others, how can they be consistent and predictable? In another word, trustworthy? Why should people commit, work hard, try hard, if their leader doesn’t protect them and provide consistent and predictable support and direction? If their team doesn’t trust the decision maker, underground and quiet chaos won’t be far behind.
What to do about it.
• Care about your team. Listen to them. Ask for feedback and act on it. Follow through. Communicate effectively. Confirm they heard what you said. Protect them and support them. Make them feel you have their backs.
• Be a role model, both professionally and personally. Walk your talk. Be the leader you would follow and trust. Discover and live your purpose, why you are on the planet, and how you want to share and manifest that purpose. The most accurate way I have found to determine your innate purpose is through Scientific Hand Analysis, and I ought to know. I searched for my purpose for decades before finding this neurotechnology.
• Always go for honesty. Do the right thing, even when it hurts and costs. Be transparent and keep your team apprised of the good and the bad. If you have to change direction, which makes you look inconsistent, acknowledge the challenge and explain your rationale. Discovering and aligning with your purpose makes this high-road behavior easier.
2. They don’t take action.
The new workforce is action-oriented. They move fast. The competitive environment requires it. These days people leave if their ideas are ignored, and if their leaders don’t get things done. They want to see calculated risk-taking. They want someone they can actually follow, not just watch and hear. And I choose the word ‘hear’ intentionally vs. ‘listen to’, the difference is profound. Teams listen to trusted, action-oriented decision makers. They only hear inauthentic leaders.
What to do about it.
• Drive change through inspired action. Take calculated risks, which demonstrates you trust your team. Involve them in your strategy and decisions.
• Try new things. Be passionate about your work, your true purpose, your company, its mission and vision. Implement rewards and recognition methods for your team. Help them determine THEIR purpose and gifts and assign projects and positions accordingly. Knowing your purpose provides a solid foundation for visionary, well thought-out risk-taking.
• Offer an engaging, provocative vision of the future. Make sure they know what’s in it for them and why they should stick around and give it their best shot.
3. They don’t delegate nor empower.
Inauthentic decision-makers lack the courage to delegate meaningfully. They feel they have to do things themselves because they don’t trust their team. In reality, they don’t trust themselves and that mistrust is projected outward. The truth is, they do have the courage but without self-awareness or purpose, can’t find it within.
People want to be an active part of something exciting and fulfilling, they want to make a difference in the community, in the world. If they can’t accomplish that with one leader, they’ll find another, start their own enterprise, or drift aimlessly.
What to do about it.
• Give your team the hard stuff to figure out, true compelling challenges. Then let them do it. Believe in their skills and talents and make sure they know it. Put together task forces according to members’ purpose and gifts, to work on exciting initiatives that give back, that contribute, and others that could significantly boost bottom line results.
• Let them be their authentic selves. Yes, accept all the weirdness, out- there-ness, varying beliefs and lifestyles. The more they can be themselves with your support and guidance behind them, the happier and more productive they will be. The only way you can do this is if you are comfortable with yourself, and the only way to do that is to know your innate purpose and authenticity.
4. They don’t take care of themselves.
Workaholism or over-giving backfires on everyone sooner or later. ‘Nuf said.
What to do about it.
• Live your life. Find the one, two, or three activities, hobbies, interests that truly feed your soul and then immerse yourself. Have some passions outside of work to keep you well-rounded, interesting, motivated, and healthy. Go to your children’s plays and sporting events. There is no such thing as work/life balance, but you don’t need ‘balance.’ You need a joyous, fulfilling, and fun life. You need to know your purpose, values and priorities so that your choices are easier, choices of how to spend your time and make a difference in the world.
• Be a lifelong learner. Feed your brain, your interests, your quiet inner thirst for constant growth and improvement (even if you didn’t know it was there!). Discover new things about yourself and your capabilities and interests. Keep the juices flowing!
5. They don’t lead themselves first.
Would you follow or put your trust into someone who didn’t seem to know where they were going? Or why? Authentic leaders know themselves, their purpose, gifts, values, priorities, and passions. They know why they need to do what they do, when, and where. The choices are much easier for them. They are consistent because they are simply being true to themselves, their beliefs, and their goals.
What to do about it.
• Discover who you really are. Become self-aware, or more accurately, start and stick with the process, as it never ends. (We’re way too complicated for one book, one course, one coach or even ten of each. It’s a lifelong process and gets better the further along you get.)
• Make sure you are living your true life purpose and making a difference in the way best-suited to your skills, gifts, and interests.
• Learn how to be the best and most authentic leader you can be. Go to PurposeWhisperer.com to learn about one sure-fire way to understand your purpose and authenticity.
• When in doubt, ask for help. Authentic decision-makers know they can’t do it all themselves. They know when they need help and aren’t afraid to ask for it. They know that with the right help, they will get further, and further faster, than possible on their own. They understand that if they want a team to invest time and commitment into them as a leader, they need to invest in themselves first.
Becoming an authentic leader is not rocket science. But it is science…the science of committed growth and self-discovery. I’ve studied self-awareness and purpose for over 20 years! Remember how science experiments in school were exciting and fun? The same applies here. As Carl Jung once said, “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”