6. “Whaddaya Mean I Gotta Practice?”
LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE
Creating More of the Results You Want
Introduction
I have been putting my thoughts about leadership and culture down on paper in a series of short, easy-to-digest essays. This is the final essay in a series of six. If you’d like to know a little about my background and inspiration, my website includes a section that summarizes my experience and key influences (http://www.2m-spaces.com/about-michael-p-mack/).
6. “Whaddaya Mean I Gotta Practice?”
Focusing on self and using the tools of self-awareness, conscious accountability and intention (discussed in essay #5, “Focus on How We Do Things Instead of What We Do”) as part of the process for getting results are powerful and effective. And yet, even if that makes sense to you, little will change in your leadership capacity without two things.
In essay #1, “Insights Are Easy… Tangible Results Are Not,” I said there were two conditions necessary for you as a leader to noticeably and sustainably change your capacity to create the results you want in your life. You will change your ability to create results for yourself and within your organization under these conditions:
You are clear that you want to create different results for yourself and your team. You have to want something different and be committed to making it happen.
You are committed to practice.
The foundational tools are very powerful and, like any tool, rather useless without a project, something that you want to be different.
And what do I mean by practice? “The idea of practice is, at its heart, very simple. They’re rehearsals of a quality or way of being in the world that we wish to cultivate. Done regularly and with purposeful intent, they gradually shape and reshape our relationship to ourselves and to the world” (Susan Muck, Insightleadership). More specifically, I am suggesting that each day, and better yet, throughout the day, you remind yourself of what you want to be different, what outcome you want to create and what shift in attitude, perspective or behavior is most important for you to make to ensure that outcome occurs.
I will leave you with this final quote from Leo Tolstoy: “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
Suggested Next Steps
Get clear about what you want to be different in your organization and your role in making that happen.
Understand what shift in attitude, perspective or behavior will best support your desired outcomes.
Find a mentor, coach or trusted colleague to be a resource in your mission.
Practice.
Contact information:
Michael P. Mack
M: 619.990.5300
W: 2m-spaces.com
