In our leader’s tool box, there is a tool called examining and testing. To examine is to search out and try our ways of being. Leaders examine and test themselves against the way we “Be” for others.
It is risky work to study and examine our own motives. Some people cannot bring themselves to do this level of work. To really examine ourselves we must turn on the bright lights, get out the magnifying glass and take a look at our thoughts and words and dissect them.
Our words take on meaning for others. Our level of care for others is vitally important to our leadership. Leaders must grow and change. In the words of General Shinseki, “If we don’t like change we will like our own irrelevance even less.”
Anything you can’t examine you can’t shift. This is the first step to opening yourself up to consider other possibilities for yourself and your life of leadership.