What is your leadership style? Or what will it be?
Great leaders are all around us. They’re in our schools, our churches, our businesses, our community organizations…our neighborhoods and our families. You might respect some of these leaders and look to them for guidance, but how often do you really think about what attracts you to their leadership style?
Are you ready to acknowledge that what you notice about them holds clues to your own brand of leadership?
The Reticular Activating System: A Leadership Style Guide
There’s a part of your brain (at the brainstem) called the Reticular Activating System, and it’s responsible for your waking and sleeping, as well as bringing subconscious thoughts to the conscious forefront.
The reticular activating system (RAS) will filter through the more than 14,000,000 bits of information being processed at any given time and bring those that are of current interest, or those that concern you most, to consciousness.
You’ve probably heard me talk about The Law of Attraction, and I have taught you that What You Focus on Expands. Well, the RAS is the bridge between science and the philosophies I have been teaching for 37 years.
If you’ve ever bought a new car that you thought was unlike anything you’d ever seen, only to notice models like it all over the road after you started driving it, or if you’ve ever added a new word to your vocabulary and then started hearing it in conversation…you’ve experienced the work of the RAS.
If you were to take notice of every piece of information swirling around you, you would never be able to maintain focus, and you’d never get to sleep. So, your RAS brings only those things that matter to you to consciousness. It’s the same reason the television or passing cars might not wake you up at night, but a crying baby will.
It’s also the same reason you’re taking notice of particular leadership styles.
You see, that’s your RAS pointing you toward the areas you have recognized that you want to develop. It’s your leadership style coming to the surface, becoming deliberate…and moving you toward conscious leadership.
Your Conscious Leadership Style
Your leadership style isn’t going to develop on its own. It’s not going to grow like hair or continue on like breathing.
Instead, conscious attention must be paid to what you wish to accomplish.
Your RAS can’t go to work pulling points of significance out of your environment if you don’t tell it what to look for.
Maybe you already know you want to be a leader who is charismatic, and that’s why a particular college professor has stood out for you. Or maybe you want to be an empathetic leader, and that’s why you feel so drawn to a mentor who listens, who is genuinely concerned.
Focus on the impact you want to create and the difference you want to make. Focus on the legacy you want to leave. And through it all, pay particular attention to those leaders who stand out for you. Look to them for guidance. Learn from them. And stay tuned for the next installment in this leadership series, when I talk about essential leadership traits.
Are you a conscious leader? Or do you want to learn how to become a conscious leader through the development of your own personal leadership style? In the Conscious Leadership Academy, we are helping courageous leaders stand out and up-level their games, so they can make differences and create a win/win world.
Click on the link above to learn more, and then visit Essence of Leadership for more information on upcoming One-Day Events.
