Strategic Serendipity

Most organizations have a standard list of competencies that they expect leaders to have.  Every book on leadership will list the competencies that the author feels are critical to success.  Yet every successful leader has had their own strengths and weaknesses.  So how do you develop yourself for leadership success? Divide your list of competencies up into three categories: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Career Derailers . We know that you want to maximize and develop your strengths and fix any career derailers.  But what about the weaknesses? If they are completely unrelated to the job you have now or want to have next, you can pass on focusing on them, for now.  But when you are ready to round out your portfolio, I suggest you start with cultivating and developing (and listening to) those who have strengths in the areas you are weak.  Yes, you could spend hours learning a new skill.  And if it is important to future success, you probably should have...

You know my opinion that when it comes to professional development , you get out of a program what you put into it.  So now you get my opinion on the single most important element of personal/professional development. 
SELF AWARENESS 
 What is it?  Self awareness is knowing your strengths and how to maximize them, knowing your weaknesses and how to buffer them, knowing that you have blind spots and being open to feedback about them, and being willing to do the necessary reflection and work to constantly improve yourself. I have observed so many people in leadership development programs (1 hour to 18 month) listen to an amazing instructor describe an action, reaction, or career derailer and immediately speak up and identify someone else who has that quality.  You would not believe how often, that person has the same quality.  However, they often even follow up with because of my experience working with that person I make a point to not do this.  Awkward....

"When your monster wants to throw things and your monster wants to shout, there's a way to calm your monster, and chill your inner monster out."  We laugh when we play this for our young child and the cute little Elmo turns into a monster and we dance with our little one when Colbie Caillat melodically sings "Belly Breathe."   http://youtu.be/_mZbzDOpylA   Toddlers are notorious for meltdowns.  All the research says it is because they don't have the words to express their feelings and guide the parents to stay calm. But what about when you are at work and YOUR monster wants to throw things?  The Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i), a popular emotional intelligence assessment, includes Emotional Management and Regulation as one of composite scales with Stress Tolerance and Impulse Control as subscales.  In other words, how well can you chill your inner monster out? In his book  Emotional Intelligence , Daniel Goleman, posits that 20 percent of an in...