Good day all! We finish the Authenticity chapter of Doug Dickerson’s book, Leaders Without Borders, today with a discussion of margins.
Enjoy the excerpt below.
An authentic leader develops what I refer to as leadership margins.
One definition of the word “margins”, as it appears in the American Heritage Dictionary, is “an amount allowed beyond what is needed: a margin of safety.”
As leaders we need to develop margins and expand in order to add value to others.
Authentic leaders allow themselves to be stretched and see their leadership margins expanded.
Four specific margins that can be expanded significantly increase influence as a leader.
- Consider the margin of grace.
A leader needs a strong degree of grace when positioning an organization for success.
Failure happens. People make mistakes.
Setbacks occur on the road to success.
A leader needs a margin of grace – an amount allowed beyond what is needed. - Consider the margin of confidence.
Confidence is the fuel that powers your organization.
Confidence matters because of its residual impact.
Instilling confidence is not a short-term fix to get through a segmented time frame.
Certainly the benefit of confidence is sustaining during challenging times, but confidence is to be built upon.
People in your organization need a leader with expanded margins of confidence to remind them that their best days are ahead of them. - Consider the margin of creativity.
A wise leader encourages outside-the-box thinking in order to position his team for success.
Sometimes it takes a little creativity within the margins to realize a team’s potential.
A good leader values team members who think differently and challenge old assumptions. - Consider the margin of personal development.
An authentic leader is constantly growing, developing, and expanding his knowledge and margins as a leader.
A generous margin of personal development is the product of the leader who understands that at the perimeters of the organization are team members who are ready to take the team to new levels.
Authenticity is one of the highest callings in leadership.
Imagine the possibilities of your leadership as you lead not from the position of what you know but from the power and integrity of your heart.
~Evolution of Self
#leadership #authenticity #people #team #success #thursdaythought
