The Secret To Being A Better Leader
I’ve heard our current pandemic referred to as “The Global Pause”.
However, in my business as a coach to high performing women, I have yet to hear them articulate how their worlds have slowed down.
In our Zoom-filled days, schooling children from home while managing the same pre-COVID work load… the reality is that there’s no sign of a slow down. Life feels more frenetic and frenzied than ever before.
However, the best leaders are those who step away from the distractions and only focus on what’s important.
Leveraging the simple pause, is the secret to being a better leader.
I call it simple, because:
Pausing can be brief and can happen during a conversation, taking time to think before responding.
A pause can take 10 minutes during a Morning Ritual before your day begins.
It can be 30 minutes set aside every week for reflection and planning the week ahead.
And, the pause can be an extended one, as during a weekend away spent in reflection
So while the act of pausing is simple, mastering the ability to pause while living in a culture that rewards action… well that takes discipline, for sure.
As a leader, one of your biggest responsibilities is to discern between the voluminous amounts of information available and the critical few pieces that are instrumental to your work.
The leaders who practice the pause
have more clarity, broader perspectives
and better decision making abilities
than those who are in constant motion.
Pausing to gain clarity
Sitting quietly and thinking through complex issues can often lead to breakthrough moments.
Pausing to gain perspective
Time in reflection allows leaders to consider the bigger picture, to assess progress and to establish a new direction.
Pausing to improve decision making
When decisions need to be made—and especially when they need to be made quickly—the best leaders take a moment to themselves. They aren’t stalling—they’re making a peaceful space to review their options, make sure they’re thinking clearly and accounting for everything. A little focused time yields clear, well-thought-out decisions.
Authors, Raymond M. Kethledge and Mike Erwin, remind us that great leaders seek out time to be alone. In their book, Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude, Kethledge and Erwin detail dozens of stories of contemporary and historical leaders who used solitude to become more effective and impactful.
In the book, the authors describe how solitude practices enabled Dwight D. Eisenhower to make big, analytical decisions like launching D-Day, helped Lawrence of Arabia and General Ulysses S. Grant come up with creative war strategies, allowed Abraham Lincoln to keep himself emotionally stable during the Civil War, and gave Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Pope John Paul II the moral courage to stand up for what they believed in.
The discipline of pausing isn’t complicated,
but it does represent a radically different approach to leading.
Once you master the discipline of pausing, you will have harnessed a power very few understand, and that alone will set you above the others.
Living Fully Balanced: Learning to pause is the only one absolute power we have as leaders. When their lives get noisier and busier, the best leaders inject even more solitude and reflective time into it. Click to learn about The Pause Retreat, a customized, luxury personal and professional development retreat for female leaders.
Lisa Bobyak, Life Balance Consultant, Personal Leadership Coach and founder of Living Fully Balanced, has been elevating the performance, perspective and peace of mind of high-achieving professionals on the brink of burnout for nearly a decade. Through her Living Fully Balanced™ methodology, she equips her clients with both the self-awareness and planning tools to thrive in our fast-paced, work-driven society. Her inspiring and educational presentations challenge the current hustle culture and offer strategies to prevent burnout and create balance. Lisa is the mastermind behind the transformative Love Your Life Again program. She’s also the author of 7 Days to Loving Your Life Again and the creator of the Living Fully Balanced Life Planner™.