Today’s Guest Contributor Post is by Mona Reiser. Mona is a former Customer Service and Supply Chain Executive who resides in Atlanta. She now helps other businesses to set them up for success.
“Hard on yourself is an emotion. He strives for excellence, which is purposeful” Chuck Morris, performance coach says of Minkah Fitzpatrick, Defensive Back for the University of Alabama.
As a leader, there are so many times that we are hard on ourselves. Why does this happen? Is it a trait that comes from something that happened at a young age or does it occur as the corporate climb begins? A leader takes to heart the activities and accomplishments, successes and opportunities that occur. It may be even harder for them to reconcile when these situations are viewed as failures in someone else’s book. A leader is even harder on themselves as the expectations from the upper echelon of the organization become more intense. The expectations from the group that is being led also have expectations that are growing as well. Failure, missteps or anything less than stellar results can cause a leader to take it as their responsibility. They begin to doubt themselves and second guess what has occurred. They replay the events trying to assess what could have been changed to achieve a different result.
Taking this particular quote and focusing on “strives for excellence, which is purposeful” is a different spin! One that can be absorbed and shared. Minkah looks at “striving for excellence” as his purpose vs the outcome. Thinking about it in this way causes a change in perception. It becomes an intentional way to look at all situations that occur to learn from them and apply those lessons every day. This is a great way to think about how a leader can also look at striving for excellence. When the leader makes this their mantra, it becomes a culture change that can impact so many people as it spreads out and across the organization.