How Do You Lead Yourself?

How Do You Lead Yourself?

It’s raining and you’ve had a difficult journey into work. You stepped in a puddle while walking across the car park and now you have a wet foot. The lift is broken so you have to walk up the stairs to the third floor. You walk through the door of the office, to be greeted by the faces of your team – eager and expectant, waiting for their daily dose of inspiration from you. But you have a face like thunder, so you march into your office, slam the door and start angrily answering the emails that are awaiting you attention.

But if you do that, how will your behaviour impact on your team? Will they continue to be effective, carrying out the work you need them to do? Or will they wonder what the problem is? Are they about to get the sack? Is the company in trouble? What have they done wrong?

If you don’t recognise that scenario (because you bounced into work, skipping across the puddles and running up the stairs because it’s great exercise!) perhaps the problem occurs later in the day. You’ve been too busy to take a break over lunch, except for drinking stronger coffee. You’ve still got a lot to do today, but as the afternoon wears on, you find yourself snapping at members of your team when they try to ask you a question. You can’t concentrate on reading more than a line at a time of the report you need to finish by the end of the day. Another cup of coffee? It doesn’t make any difference – you’re just getting more and more tired …

Your brain does not come with a user manual, so unless you take the time to understand your brain and how you work, you won’t be able to effectively manage yourself and your time. Which means you will struggle to manage and lead other people too.

Your brain is like a battery. On a Monday morning, if you have time to relax over the weekend, your battery will be fully charged; the same applies to Tuesday mornings and getting a good night’s sleep on Monday! There are some tasks that drain your battery more quickly than others, so it’s worth doing the tough stuff first, when your battery is fully charged. It’s also essential that you give your brain battery the time and relaxation it needs to regain full charge.

When you lead a team of people, they will look to you for motivation and inspiration. They will expect to receive it from you whenever they need it – after all, you are their leader. They might not know that you’re not a morning person, or that you’ve been up all night working. You need to work out when you are at your most effective and then look for ways of dealing with the highs and lows of energy that will affect you – and your mood – throughout the day.

You need to make sure that you don’t take your bad mood into the office – it will infect everyone else. Don’t show your tiredness in the afternoon either – it’s not a good example to set when you’re a leader.

Only when you really understand yourself and know how to lead yourself, can you become a more effective, limbic leader.

Limbic Success Tips
How do you find out when you’re your most effective self? Don’t leave it to your team members to tell you – by then it will be too late!

1. Check in with your mood and your energy levels throughout the day. Keep a log for a few days, if you need to and make a note of how you’re feeling, at certain times of the day.

2. Do the same with the days of the week. Give yourself a score of 1-5 at the end of each day (including weekends) for how you felt overall, at the end of the day.

3. Look back at your records to see if you’re a morning, afternoon or evening person. Do you have more energy at the start or the end of the week?

Once you have a clear understanding of how your mood and your effectiveness changes hourly and daily, you can start to plan for it. This way, your team members won’t be left wondering if you’ll be bouncing into the office grinning, or stomping in to snap their heads off!

By Peter Green

Peter is a speaker, workshop facilitator and author. Founder of Limbic Leadership, helping front line leaders harness the brain for massive influence, higher engagement and exceptional results from their teams. Leadership Development Grounded in Neuroscience!