Get a Clue: Bring on the Personal Mastery Please!

In my last blog post, I talked about finding out who we are as leaders. As a continuation of my plea for a “call to excellence,” I would like to chat about how to employ our newfound self-awareness to work with others. 

I am always amazed at how some of us professionals have had a personal mastery assessment, but we somehow still manage to mess up our relations to others.  Some of us practice the golden rule; well, how about taking on the platinum rule: Do unto others as THEY would have you do unto them, not as YOU would have them do unto you.

Personal mastery is about building a healthy self-awareness that makes one progressively productive. Do we not all have a desire to be totally different but better 365 days from now, or even by tomorrow or next week? If we aren’t improving—leaving the world better than we found it—we are simply getting old, taking up space, and using up natural resources.

Now don’t twist what I just said! There is nothing wrong with achieving geriatrics, I’m headed there myself. It beats the alternative. What I am saying is “get a clue.” When relating to others, I really don’t know anyone that the bull in a china shop approach has worked for??? The “shut-down” denial approach is pretty bad too.

Simply put, know yourself, so you can get to know others. Having an objective view about yourself translates to gaining an objective view about others. We are much more productive when we can effectively relate to others. We also save time and energy when we know where our strengths and struggles lie. 

Developing personal mastery also helps us align our talents and core values with the right individuals, teams, and organizations. Healthy self-awareness prepares us to quickly process and sort situations that are worth our time and energy and those that are not. In such unsavory cases, we can make a faster, cleaner break with more relationships intact. Personal mastery is king!

I wish you and your team “A Polite Situation.”

I welcome your feedback and questions!  For action steps to this behavior navigation please visit the ECS page. 

Reference

Rightpath Resources. (2008).  Individual and Team Development. Suwanee, GA:  Author