This is From The Balance Beam

[TheBalanceBeam] - The Inside Job

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THE BALANCE BEAM
Ideas and Inspiration for Creating a Life that Works
Vol. 3 No. 4, March 5, 2001
Published by Success Builders, Inc.
http://www.SuccessBuildersInc.com
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"He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened."
Lao-tzu
In this issue: THE INSIDE JOB
====================================================================== Dear Friends:
I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about the difficult job of being a corporate leader these days. It's tough on the outside and it's tough on the inside. In this issue of The Balance Beam, we take a look at some of the internal factors associated with strong leadership.

If you want to check out earlier editions of The Balance Beam that you may have missed, you can easily retrieve them by clicking on http://www.successbuildersinc.com/newsletter.html and going to the Archives section. If you are not yet a regular subscriber to The Balance Beam, you can also enter your subscription information at this location.
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Today's Topic: THE INSIDE JOB

Change is always easier when it's happening to somebody else. Let's face it: we're all experts when it comes to the business of what somebody else needs to do differently. Whether we're talking about friends, family members or work colleagues, we can generally dish it out better than we can take it.

This phenomenon is not just a personal thing; it shows up among the ranks of organizational leaders as well. The lament goes something like this: "If only the sales and marketing group would sell more......if only the human resources department would hire better people..... if only our customers would make up their minds once and for all what they want...... if only our suppliers would become more reliable.....if only this culture weren't so resistant to change......if only, if only, if only.

The problem with these "if only's" is that while the leader is busy reciting the targets on his list, the sales and marketing group, the human resources folks, the customers, the suppliers, and his team, are all saying the same thing about him, and about one another. And so it rolls. No one is making any substantial and profound change because everyone is busy pointing the finger at everybody else.

We live in a world that is obsessed with externals. We benchmark best practices. We study comparative pricing guidelines. We devour current industry data. We measure every possible performance metric we can get our hands on, whether it relates to what our customers need or not. We look for information about how we should lead from every angle available, but we often overlook the most valuable source: a long, slow look in the mirror.

The pace of today's business arena is seductive. At any given moment, there's enough happening in our external realities to fall into the habit of being guided solely by what's happening "out there". If we're not responding to a new variable that just showed up on the radar screen, we're strategizing around what's coming down the pike. The problem with this approach is that it precludes tapping into one of our most important sources of wisdom: our own interior landscapes.

So what does it mean to look inside in a quest to develop as a leader? For starters, it means acknowledging that strong leadership is often less about what we do, and more about who we are and how we show up in the world. Within this exploration, there are several lines of inquiry that are especially pertinent:

1. What do I believe in? What are the guiding principles around which I want to center my life and my action? What are my core values? What do I stand for, and how does this dovetail with what the organization is all about?

2. How authentic is my everyday behavior? Am I behaving and leading in ways that are congruent with these deeply held beliefs and values? If not, where are the gaps, and what do I need to do about them?

3. Am I willing to be a learner as well as a leader? Can I admit that I don't have all the answers? That sometimes the lessons for change are not about the company or the marketplace or the people I'm surrounded by, but more about my own needs to show up differently?

4. Can I honestly and non-defensively gauge my impact on others? Am I able to receive the feedback that they give me as a gift, and view it as an opportunity for positive change?

5. Am I willing to accept full responsibility for my circumstances? Do I acknowledge that regardless of what happens, I am always at choice and have a range of options around how to proceed?

In the book, The Power Principle, author Blaine Lee writes, "The leader who exercises power with honor will work from the inside out, starting with himself." A reminder to all of us about the importance of the inside job.
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Words to live by:

"To measure the man, measure his heart."
-Malcolm Stevenson Forbes

"A real leader faces the music, even when he doesn't like the tune."
-Anonymous