Goodness to Greatness Leadership-Seven Steps

Goodness to Greatness Leadership – Seven Steps from ME to WE
By Irene Becker, Chief Success Officer, Just Coach It, www.justcoachit.com

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Are YOU ready to lead from goodness to greatness? Are you ready to build the architecture of business, personal and inter-personal leadership?  Or, will you lead or will you follow the Pied Piper of discouragement and fear that leads the breaking news we ingest on a daily basis?

It is a challenge, but it’s a challenge that is worth our greatest effort.  And, amazingly when we have the courage to lead with our strengths, the courage to learn how to transform the changes and even crises we face into a positive catalyst for our true power and potential we become not only change agents, but change leaders. In so doing we inspire others to lead rather than follow, to move past fear and step into their greatest courage and power.

A challenge that requires seven steps, seven commitments. Business leadership, personal leadership and inter-personal leadership are all built upon an architecture that is simple but powerful.  Here are the seven steps, the seven pillars, that create the architecture of leadership in a world, workplace and marketplace of intense volatility, change and crisis.

1.  The commitment to lead and not follow.  Creating the architecture of what I call Q3™ power.  Developing enhanced IQ, EQ, SQ. Great leaders have always recognized and developed their intellectual capital, emotional capital and spiritual capital, because they recognized that being smart was not enough, being heart centered  was not enough, and being values driven was not enough.  Leadership evolves; leadership grows by developing and engaging all three Q’s. Part of developing Q3™   power is learning, but the most critical part is working with someone to actively use one’s strengths and transform changes and crises to increase one’s intellectual capital, emotional capital and spiritual capital.

2.   The commitment to the empowerment of self and others:  Creating a social or human architecture that will gather the commitment of others who want to lead collaboratively, because leadership and success today are achieved through servant or collaborative leadership.  The era of command and control leadership is dying its last death.  We need leaders who can stand at the head of the class not simply to articulate the vision, but to inspire and guide others who will in turn also lead. Getting empowered starts when we decide to build a fence around our integrity, hope, faith, potential and ability to make a difference and inspire others to do the same.  It cannot and will not come from looking at what is wrong, but rather from starting to recognize our individual strengths, our power and celebrating them from a place that is not ego driven, but rather driven by our desire to do our best work, build our best relationships, enable our best leadership, live better and happier lives.

3. The commitment to purpose and vision:  Creating a moral architecture, common purpose, a goal that speaks to something meaningful, purposeful that will engage others and is the common ground, the common goal that will be shared and cherished. The moral architecture, the vision keeps organizations competitive because it is only through creating and sustaining value for others that success is built and sustained.  It is only by creating value for employees, shareholders, clients, stakeholders and communities that success continues.  And, on a personal and inter-personal level, it is the moral architecture, or ability to stay in alignment with the core values we cherish, the goals that matter most to us that create success in our lives and relationships.

4. The commitment to communicating the vision:  Creating architecture of meaning that is conveyed not only by words but by actions — by the determination and the passion the leader has for the vision and by his/her ability to communicate this vision.  Developing the high emotional intelligence that drives masterful communication is critical.  Articulating and living the values creating the words, using symbols that paint a brilliant picture that engages others and helps them work collaboratively to the accomplishment of shared goals, i.e. the vision is what communicating the vision is all about.

 5. The commitment to courage:  Creating architecture of hope.  Developing an outlook that drives and sustains courage at the front lines, courage in the face of challenges and ignites the hope and the faith that drives our greatest thoughts and actions — the hope and faith that inspires our self and others.  Commitment to courage that cannot be achieved without building our spiritual quotient, without creating an alignment of our heads, hearts and souls that allows us to tap into the power within at the very worst of times.

6. The commitment to integrity.  Creating architecture of trust.  Nothing is built and sustained without trust.  Leadership of self and leadership of others starts with the inspiration to lead rather than follow the Q3™ strength (intellectual, emotional and spiritual capital to sustain leadership) and the spiritual capital to live and lead with the integrity that drives and sustains trust.   Trust is something we learn to build in ourselves, and we also can learn to build it in others.  Trust is the anchor for our spiritual quotient and it is also the catalyst which allows us to build and sustain the relationships that are critical to leadership, success and happiness.

7.  The commitment to action-ability.  Creating architecture of action-ability.  The greatest thoughts, best laid plans, or strategies are useless until they are made action-able.  Developing action-ability at the front lines of a business, economic, personal or inter-personal battle demands Q3™ power, and leadership is not leadership without action-ability.  The greatest ideas, the best strategies, the most inspiring words are lovely but impotent without action.  Leadership demands an architecture of action-ability.  When a leader learns to optimize strengths while using changes even crises to build IQ-EQ-SQ and develop tools, strategies that drive action-ability of self and others, power is engaged, leadership evolves and grows.

Nothing worthwhile is ever accomplished without determination, or without courage.  Today, the determination and courage to build business, personal and inter-personal leadership is not important — it is critical.  Engaging and actualizing this determination requires a bit of pixie dust.  Pixie dust born of hope, of that intangible but critical desire to contribute by not losing touch with our true power to effective positive change, to collaborate together to build and sustain a better human, personal and business bottom line.  The determination to aspire to our greatest good in our relationships, the greatest good in our work, the greatest strength in moving away from fear and discouragement by finding that pixie dust, tapping into the hope that we can make a difference and will.  That spark that is the soul of leadership, and one that we can chose to re-ignite if we are ready to take the road less travelled.  With great leadership comes great responsibility to stand at the front lines of battle with the conviction to win the war, and the greatest war we fight is from inside out.  The greatest battle we face is to inspire, engage and lead the best in ourselves by building our Q3™ strengths so that we can in turn inspire, engage and lead others who in turn lead vertically and horizontally in their lives and organizations.

Leadership is a choice, and it is one of the most difficult choices one can make because it clearly means taking the road less traveled, and it means developing courage when others have lost theirs, determination when few have it because it is far easier to manage than to lead.  It is far easier to become complacent or discouraged by the multiplicity of challenges and crises we face on an individual and collective basis.  But, easier is not necessarily better, and the easy path is not the one that can help us fill our pocketbooks and our souls.

More on Leadership:    YES!  Just search leadership or leadership blogroll on the search prompt in the right hand corner of this blog.

More Goodness to Greatness?   Is Goodness Good for Business? From Goodness to Greatness and The Thriving Organization 

©Irene Becker, www.justcoachit.com
Helping smart people and smart organizations move forward smarter, faster, happier

37 replies
    • Irene Becker
      Irene Becker says:

      Thank you so very much, John. I appreciate your taking the time to comment and your appreciation for this article:) I also cannot wait to visit your blog. My work schedule is over the top until Aug 30th, but I am going to do my best to enjoy your blog this weekend as I have no doubt it is exceptional. Your career has certainly been one of making a huge leadership footprint-kudos!

      Very best, Irene

      Reply
  1. AjmaniK
    AjmaniK says:

    Very nice article. You have hit all the elements that are the requirements of
    leadership ~ I am partial to ‘vision’, ‘courage’ and ‘integrity’.

    I do have a question – where do you think ‘taking personal responsibility or accountability’ fit into the seven points?

    Kumud

    Reply
    • Irene Becker
      Irene Becker says:

      Thanks so much Kumud! Taking personal responsibility or accountability is implicit in true leadership and as such it applies to all of the seven points. True leadership, goodness to greatness leadership cannot be manifest without the alignment of what I call the 3Q’s our cognitive ability, our emotional intelligence and our spiritual quotient-our alignment with universal moral code of which responsibility is critical.

      Very best, Irene

      Reply
  2. Frank Sonnenberg
    Frank Sonnenberg says:

    What a refreshing article Irene. I especially like your point, “Great leaders have always recognized and developed their intellectual capital, emotional capital and spiritual capital, because they recognized that being smart was not enough, being heart centered was not enough, and being values driven was not enough.” How true!

    Have a great day!

    Best,

    Frank

    Reply
    • Irene Becker
      Irene Becker says:

      Frank: Thank you so much! I believe with all my heart in the power of 3Q Leadership, in our ability to lead from goodness to greatness, because the epitome of leadership has always been founded on the courage, faith, humanity, intelligence and commitment that can change a life, an organization, communities…and ultimately our world.

      Sincerest thanks for your comments!
      Irene

      Reply
  3. Shreeji Arun
    Shreeji Arun says:

    Irene,

    Lots to follow. None of us have all these qualities packaged in ourselves.

    It is a business plan that needs to cordinate all these skills and hire the skill sets necessary.

    Hope your reader recoginse this and get the expertise to enhance their projects, business or personal life.

    Reply
    • Irene Becker
      Irene Becker says:

      Shreeji: Thank you so much for your comments! I apologize for the delay in responding, as there was a technical problem with my blog and I was not receiving comments.

      I think that success is a joint venture. We all need collaborators, colleagues, mentors and others who guide us forward and help us recognize and actualize our potential.

      Having a plan is critical, as is executing the plan. Thanks again for your comments.

      Best, Irene

      Reply
  4. BENJAMIN A ANYANAH
    BENJAMIN A ANYANAH says:

    This is a wonderful piece, am going to give a lecture on good and effective leadership to a group of community leader in my neighborhood and this is a good source.

    Reply
    • Irene Becker
      Irene Becker says:

      Benjamin, thank you very much for your comments. I am so glad taht my article was of service to you in teaching leadership and with your work in the community. I would love to hear about how your lecture went. Feel free to drop me a line at irene@justcoachit.com.

      Wishing you great continued success in making a leadership footprint in your community. Kudos.

      Irene

      Reply
    • Irene Becker
      Irene Becker says:

      Benjamin, thank you so much for your comments. I apologize for the delay in responding, as I had tech problems with the blog!

      I am so glad that my post was of service, and wish you great continued success in making a big leadership footprint by teaching and inspiring others to lead forward effectively.

      Best, Irene

      Reply
  5. Edward Colozzi
    Edward Colozzi says:

    HI Irene,
    Wonderful post. My top favorites on your list of Seven (all are important) in this order, are #6 Integrity, #3 Purpose and Vision, and #2 Empowerment of Self and Others.

    Integrity allow you to step in the right direction with Strength and Purity of Heart; Purpose and Vision allow you to discover your Calling(s), where you are headed and for what reason; Empowerment of Self and Others is a natural flow that results from the achieving the first two.

    No matter how much one wants to empower themselves and others, and no matter how clear their purpose and vision, without Integrity and Right Intentions of the Heart, all is in vain.

    Continue your excellent work my friend:) EdC

    Reply
    • Irene Becker
      Irene Becker says:

      Hi Ed: I apologize for the delay in replying to your comment, as I had techinical problems with my blog! Ah, your favorite competencies are also mine! Can we lead without integirty, purpose and the ability to empower self and others? Never.

      I believe that great leaders learn to lead at the front lines of battle. Today, the need for leadership is great. But, as Betsy Ross said to Thomas Jefferson during a time when the survival of what would become the USA was hanging in the balance….Times of great challenge, demand great leadership.

      I believe that a great leader is a goodness to greatness leader! I truly appreciate your commenting on my post, your sage reflections, and your support of my work!

      Yours in service and friendship,
      Irene

      Reply
  6. Japhet Simon
    Japhet Simon says:

    Irene

    Inspirational again…. this statement says it all for me, get it right the Seven Steps will automatically fall into place.

    “Trust is the anchor for our spiritual quotient and it is also the catalyst which allows us to build and sustain the relationships that are critical to leadership, success and happiness”

    Reply
  7. Japhet Simon
    Japhet Simon says:

    Irene
    Inspirational again…. this statement says it all for me, get it right the Seven Steps will automatically fall into place.

    “Trust is the anchor for our spiritual quotient and it is also the catalyst which allows us to build and sustain the relationships that are critical to leadership, success and happiness”

    Reply

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