A cadence of life to guide you.
Just like you want a visual rhythm to guide you through a layout, we need to establish a cadence of life that guides us through the various seasons.
As we wrap up our series on the design elements of leader, the topic of rhythm will help you apply what you’ve learned and continue to grow.
If we and our world were designed to live in rhythm, we should embrace it and allow it to orient our leadership journey.
In the western world, we tend to take a linear worldview. We prefer to represent events chronologically on a timeline from left to right.
However our world has many natural rhythms, such as days, months, seasons, and years. These run in cycles, and much of the world still holds a cyclical rather than linear world view.
a rhythm of review helps us as leaders mark our growth over time.
The exhortation to “take life one day at a time” reflects a cyclical perspective. The fact that we sleep every night demonstrates how we are made for a cadence or rhythm that runs in a circle.
So how do we take this understanding and apply it to our leadership?
If we and our world were designed to live in rhythm, we should embrace it and allow it to orient our leadership journey.
We can create a rhythm of reflection, evaluation, and growth as a leader with some intentionality.
Over ten years ago, after reading Getting Things Done, I began implementing reviews. I would conduct them weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly. I was using OmniFocus to organize my work, and it would remind me at the right time to do my review, helping me build the habit.
This rhythm really helped me reflect and make visible what was happening in my life and leadership.
When I conducted the review, I could see my answers from the previous review. I was not only getting a better view of where I was but also where I had been.
My kids can’t perceive how much they grow in a day, week, or even month. But when we mark their height on one post of the bunk bed and they can see progress in something that is otherwise invisible in their daily lives.
Similarly, a rhythm of review helps us as leaders mark our growth over time.
Start small using a weekly review with a few questions. It could be
You may notice those questions are essentially the questions of the daily standup in Scrum.
One of the reasons I really embrace the Agile methodology and Scrum framework for organizing people and projects is because it takes advantage of this natural rhythm to make things transparent (reflection), to inspect (evaluation), and to adapt (growth).
I’ve taken a number of these Agile principles or concepts and applied them to both my professional and personal life.
You can move beyond the daily and weekly rhythm to a monthly, quarterly or yearly rhythm. These long-term rhythms focus more on alignment with your priorities. Questions I’ve asked for these reviews include:
A cadence of self-reflection is helpful, but as we mentioned in our post on contrast, we have blind spots and need others to see them.
Each year I have a 360, where four to seven people provide feedback on specific areas of my leadership. I also conduct these for those I lead.
Just like you want a visual rhythm to guide you through a layout, we need to establish a cadence of life that guides us through the various seasons.
If this isn’t a part of your organization’s culture, you can either help start it or run it on your own. Either way, regular feedback from others is critical to our growth as leaders.
It’s easy to feel stuck or uncertain about how to move ahead. Maybe you feel overloaded or like you’re just spinning your wheels. What if you had someone alongside you on the journey?
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve tried to create a rhythm to my day, week, and three-week sprint.
To get started, I found it helpful to print out blank daily and weekly calendars. Using a pencil and eraser, I experimented with different options to give my work a more regular rhythm. Some things I’ve tried over the years.
However you do it, look for ways to create momentum and focus while stewarding your energy and attention throughout the day and week to focus on the right things.
We can create a rhythm of reflection, evaluation, and growth as a leader with some intentionality.
Next Steps in Your Leader Design
This wraps up the series on leader design. I hope you found it helpful on your journey of becoming a servant leader.
The leader design short course packages all of this into a 7-day personal guide.
You’ll get daily content, including action steps, resources, and worksheets for you to further develop your design as a leader.
Team leadership is a management approach focused on leading and guiding a group of individuals working together towards a common goal. A team leader is responsible for providing direction, support, and guidance to the team members, while fostering a positive and productive work environment.
Team leadership involves setting clear goals and expectations for the team, communicating effectively, and building trust and relationships with team members. It also involves empowering team members to take ownership of their work and contribute their unique skills and perspectives to the team's success.
Some key characteristics of effective team leadership include:
Overall, team leadership is a collaborative and empowering approach to management that values communication, trust-building, and results-driven performance.
There are several different styles of team leadership, including:
Overall, each style of team leadership has its own strengths and weaknesses, and effective leaders may use a combination of different styles depending on the situation and the needs of their team.
There are several key skills required for effective team leadership, including:
Overall, effective team leadership requires a combination of interpersonal, decision-making, and management skills, as well as the ability to inspire and empower team members to work collaboratively towards shared goals.
Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy and management style that emphasizes the importance of serving others first before considering one's own needs and desires. It's an approach to leadership that focuses on the well-being and growth of others, rather than solely on achieving organizational goals.
A servant leader prioritizes the needs of their followers or team members, providing them with support, guidance, and mentorship. They are committed to empowering their team members to reach their full potential and achieve their goals.
Some common characteristics of servant leaders include:
Overall, servant leadership is about creating a supportive and empowering environment for others to thrive. By prioritizing the needs of their followers, a servant leader can inspire trust, loyalty, and commitment, ultimately leading to better outcomes for the organization as a whole.
Learn more about how to cultivate servant leadership.
Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy and management style that emphasizes the importance of serving others first before considering one's own needs and desires. It's an approach to leadership that focuses on the well-being and growth of others, rather than solely on achieving organizational goals.
A servant leader prioritizes the needs of their followers or team members, providing them with support, guidance, and mentorship. They are committed to empowering their team members to reach their full potential and achieve their goals.
Some common characteristics of servant leaders include:
Overall, servant leadership is about creating a supportive and empowering environment for others to thrive. By prioritizing the needs of their followers, a servant leader can inspire trust, loyalty, and commitment, ultimately leading to better outcomes for the organization as a whole.
Learn more about how to cultivate servant leadership.
Servant leadership can be beneficial in the workplace in a number of ways, including:
Overall, servant leadership can lead to a more positive, productive, and fulfilling workplace environment, benefiting both employees and the organization as a whole.
Learn more about how to cultivate servant leadership.
Servant leadership differs from many other leadership styles in several key ways:
Overall, servant leadership is characterized by a focus on serving others, prioritizing empathy and collaboration, and taking a humble and accountable approach to leadership. While other leadership styles may be effective in different contexts, servant leadership can be a powerful tool for creating positive change and empowering others to reach their full potential.
Learn more about how to cultivate servant leadership.
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