Dare to Engage Personal Sustainability: The Lynchpin of Effective Leadership

If you are going to lead the way, you’re going to need some tools to support you on your path. Competence, instinct, inspiration, integrity, joy and the ability to engage people and create results are just a few of these things. There is something deeper. Often taken for granted, screaming for attention when it’s missing, foundational to all other qualities: “Personal Sustainability.” When you have it, you don’t notice it; when it’s borderline, you ache for it; and when it’s gone, you beg for it.

What is “personal sustainability?” Some executive coaching experts call it “self-care.” I define it as doing those things that bring your self alive, nurture your body and soul, give you more joy, energy, stamina and OOMPH, so you CAN engage again and again, making the impact you want in your life and organization.

Personal sustainability is all about doing the things that sustain you, so you can sustain your game, perhaps via clean eating, exercise, self-care, family time, engagement, joyful activities, scheduling, boundaries, etc. It’s an individual concoction and, without it, we risk burnout.

Personal sustainability of the leader is crucial. It is the lynchpin of effective leadership that supports us and holds it all together. Taking care of your self for effective leadership and executive coaching for “work/life balance” will not be a new idea or topic for this audience. We’ve all been there, done that. But what if:

• We REALLY created the space for people to hold personal sustainability at as high a priority as they would hold for bringing in a multi-million dollar deal, or improving performance for a promotion or for good parenting.
• More organizations provided the space, permission, championing and vehicles to engage in self-care regularly.
• We connected, on a daily basis, to our own PSPs (Personal Sustainability Plans).
• We lovingly invited folks to stop talking about it and get into action by taking on a whole new level of self responsibility, valuing self and others enough to engage in AUTHENTIC personal sustainability?

These performance improvement habits are worth the attention. It’s not rocket science, but the application and integration of it is. We’ve heard the statistics of rising healthcare costs and disease. (The latest: we will spend 4 trillion dollars in 2017 on healthcare.)

We see burnout around us, in the news, in our communities, in our own families and even in ourselves: a high-level executive suffers a heart attack, an over-extended working mom suffers a breakdown; the community hero gets a divorce after years of being disengaged from his family. These are not new scenarios. No one will disagree with me that personal sustainability is important; yet, I notice how quickly performance improvement undertakings fall to the bottom of the Outlook task list in service of doing almost anything else.

We need to help people find the space to give them permission to indulge in the art of self care. By engaging in our own self care, we create a more alive, engaging and joyful way of being (which is contagious.) We are all at choice here. This is about our IMPACT in effective leadership roles and how we set ourselves up to have the best impact possible.

Observe the impact of individuals practicing work/life balance and performance improvement, and how that affects their presence, clarity of thought, and performance.

• There is more “space” from which to lead.
• They’re more centered and present.
• They can do the work of twelve hours in eight because they’re present, clear-minded and energized.
• Their engagement is full-force, vs. surviving through the day at half-force making foggy decisions resulting in extra work for others and lower productivity for themselves.

Today’s effective leadership has the opportunity to create a future culture that nurtures and reveres self care. It’s not just about personal sustainability; it’s about being fully alive. This is not just about “self-focus”; it’s about being our best in our relationships, our work and our lives. Leading from this place, combined with the heart, the talent and the brilliance of each person, is where we can truly lead the way. It has to start somewhere and, as coaches and leaders, we are in a beautiful place to make an impact.

Anese Cavanaugh is a certified coach, author and speaker and the founder of Dare To Engage, Inc., a company devoted to helping leaders become top leaders in their organizations and their lives through coaching and training. Her specialty is helping leaders build a healthier, more engaged workforce, retain their top talent, develop greater authentic engagement and create stronger personal sustainability. She holds a degree and multiple credentials in the areas of coaching, wellness, leadership development and health & productivity improvement. For more about Anese or the Dare To Engage Programs or to receive a complimentary report and audio on “Energy & Results” go to www.DareToEngage.com

Leadership Coaching Tip: The Daring Art (and Heart) of Recovery

How many times have you had a situation at work, or at home, where you felt ‘knocked off-kilter’, ‘thrown for a loop’ or ‘disgruntled’?

Probably not often (wink). But for you who have experienced something like this, think about a particular situation. Did it come from a meeting, conversation or project that didn’t go so well, some harsh feedback, a flub as a public speaker or something that you just didn’t expect? It often feels like “failure.”

It happens to us all, and as painful as it is, this is a place where there lies an abundance of opportunity for growth in effective leadership.

Looking back at your “event,” what brought you back to center? Got you back on track? Helped you move forward? My guess is that you “recovered” - it may have been a quick or long and painful process – but you did it.

The act of “recovery” is a gift. It’s an art - and it’s much like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes. Recovery is the ability to “get back” or “regain activity.” And for effective leadership, recovery is essential.

At a deeper level, the act of “recovery” also requires heart. Heart for yourself and heart for others. Compassion. Think about a time you goofed. What was necessary to “forgive” yourself? When someone else falls down, it’s essential to engage the heart and truly give them the space, courage and compassion to get up and come back stronger.

I believe heart, and the desire to create a positive impact, is at the center of recovery.

We all have our special processes for recovery. We all have our ways of engaging the heart. What are yours? Here are three common examples I see in personal coaching work with others.

Leadership Coaching Scenario One: You’re giving a big presentation and you make a mistake in the data. You feel yourself shuffle, perhaps flush, and so begins your inner dialogue: “I just totally messed up; oh, they’re never going to ask me in again; I’m going to lose this account!” So notice, where is your attention? It’s definitely not on the group. By now you’ve probably REALLY lost them.

Instead: Make your mistake, notice that you made it in the moment, correct it if necessary, and move on. Continue to be a fully engaged public speaker. Keep your attention on the presentation and the people in your audience.

Leadership Coaching Scenario Two: You’ve just completed a project that you think is really great. You send it out to your team and the feedback is scathing. (Maybe not “scathing”, but disappointing.) Here’s your chance: option one - you “shut down”, start to focus on how you’ve failed, how no one gets you, how you shouldn’t even be in this line of work, how YOU are a failure.

Instead: Get your feedback, put it all in your feedback “basket”, try to remember it’s not “personal” - it’s about the “thing”. Quickly remember that feedback is just feedback. What can you take from “this” feedback and use to move you forward? What systems might you put in place so this doesn’t happen again? For example, you might design in a structure for feedback before completion. Finally, make any necessary shifts, put this incident in your “future learning resource file” and move on.

Leadership Coaching Scenario Three: You’ve been exercising and eating clean for one month! Things are moving along, energy is up, inches are disappearing. This whole self-care thing rocks! And zing! It’s the holidays - parties, family, meals, and vacation all hit at once. Here’s your chance: option one - let go of all that good work; it’s a moot point anyway, why try? You’ve failed, so while you’re at it, you beat yourself up a bit.

Instead: Give yourself a break! Enough with the self-bullying. Do what you can: move your workouts to the morning, substitute the gym for brisk walks with family, continue to eat clean AND give yourself permission to enjoy some celebratory cheer. Make it fun.

For the rest of the month, notice when you need to recover and exercise those “muscles”! These things are bound to happen and they can be really challenging when they do. And with a bit of recovery, you’ll be right back on track moving forward to make the impact you want!

Anese Cavanaugh, of Dare To Engage, Inc., is a Certified Professional Coach with a focus in Leadership Development, Performance Improvement and Health and Productivity. She works with individuals and groups, privately and in organizations, to help them lead authentically and be their own best heroes in business and life. To learn more about her work with people, the DTE Programs and services, and for additional resources and tools, go to www.DareToEngage.com where you can also sign up for a Free Report (also available in audio format), on “Three Key Strategies to Lead Your Energy and Create Results (in Business, in Life and in Leadership)”.