It's okay to embrace your own sense of fulfillment.
Are your managers exhausted and burned out? Do they find it difficult to stay energetic and motivated and to think clearly? Do they always put the needs of others before their own? Does their behavior sometimes place a burden on the organization?
If you were to ask executives at your company, what answers would you get to the following questions?
Have you ever …
- Have you ever felt burned out and didn't know how to get your motivation back?
- Have you ever found it difficult to stay true to yourself when you're expected to meet so many demands?
- Have you experienced a major change in your life and had trouble recovering from it?
- Have you put your own needs aside while taking care of others?
- Have you ever asked yourself how you can stay energized during stressful times?
- Have you ever felt resistance within yourself when you wanted to ask for support?
We’re all familiar with the safety instructions on airplanes that remind us to put on our own oxygen mask before trying to help the person next to us. It makes sense that without oxygen, you can’t think clearly—or, worse yet, you might lose consciousness. Leaders who can’t think clearly and aren’t fully present (as is, unfortunately, quite common in times of distress) are a burden on their teams and organizations.
A shift in a leader’s mindset toward greater self-care can make all the difference. Here is the last of eight mindsets that can transform a leader’s effectiveness.
A New Approach to Leadership – Leadership Insights #8: It’s Okay to Embrace Your Own Wholeness.
Leadership begins with leading oneself, which requires a combination of self-awareness, self-discipline, and self-compassion.
That’s much easier said than done. As leaders, we’re pulled in so many directions and expected to serve others, often at the expense of our own well-being. The demands often seem unrealistic, yet we do our best to meet them. We often don’t get the permission and support we need to do the inner work necessary to remain our best selves.
As counterintuitive as it may sound, self-fulfillment is the foundation for experiencing satisfaction, meaning, and joy in leadership. Self-fulfillment helps leaders be more resilient and happier, and reduces their risk of burnout.
Three Steps to Self-Actualization
Make the Most of Your Strengths
- Nothing feels better than making a positive difference while doing what you’re good at. The Leadership Access #2 blog post describes the distinctive strengths of each of the six PCM personality types. Which one suits you best? How can you put these strengths to use today?
Fulfill Your Need for Motivation
- Each personality phase type is motivated differently. Self-assured leaders make sure to satisfy their motivational needs every day to stay energized. Leadership Approach #6 helps you identify your motivational needs and fulfill them anew each day.
- Make sure you spend enough time each day in environments that energize you. Leadership Tip #5 will help you do that.
Recognizing and Managing Stress
- Stress arises when we fail to meet our psychological needs in a healthy way every day during this stage of personality development. This negative focus undermines our effectiveness, puts us and others at risk, and creates a toxic work environment. Leadership Insight #7 helps you gain insight into your stress patterns and figure out what you should do next.
Change your mindset to unleash even more leadership potential
Authenticity, self-care, and resilience are the focal points of one of the modules in the PCM Leadership Program. This module explores the experience of being a leader and guides leaders toward a deeper appreciation of their own personalities and a greater ability to manage their energy and remain focused, positive, and resilient in the face of major challenges.
In this module, managers will learn how to …
- can be more authentic, even as they adapt to the people who lead them.
- be able to take better care of themselves every day.
- be able to make better decisions.
- ensure that your strengths don't become limitations.
- develop daily routines and habits to improve your overall well-being.
Get in touch with our PCM and leadership experts to learn more about how PCM can help your leaders effectively shape and further optimize the critical intersection between communication and personality.
Why can PCM leadership seminars make a difference for you?
Social competence is arguably the most important trait of a good leader: the ability to build relationships, engage with others, resolve conflicts, and motivate people are essential leadership qualities. Today’s leaders must cultivate their self-confidence and communication skills in order to succeed in an extremely diverse, global, and virtual environment.
The PCM Leadership Seminar Program is a collection of learning and practical modules that use the Process Communication Model® to address the most common and important questions in day-to-day leadership.
Managers will gain a better understanding of how their own personality influences their role and effectiveness as leaders. They will learn how to tailor communication and motivation strategies so that all personality types in the workplace are motivated to contribute. They will also learn how to strategically leverage personality diversity to the fullest extent possible.
Middle managers and those new to their roles will learn and apply key interpersonal and communication skills to enhance their effectiveness in addressing a variety of leadership challenges, such as communicating more effectively, managing performance and motivation, handling miscommunication and conflict, building trust and engagement, and practicing self-care.
Copyright Notice:
Originally published on April 26, 2023, by Nate Regier, next-element.com – translated and adapted by Uwe Reiner-Kolouch, KCG.
