The right self-talk helps leaders move through change. What are you telling yourself? Today, make a conscious effort to listen to the voice that's making noise inside your head.
As you grow as a leader running your self-talk by trusted personal advisors can help you weed out these blocks to growth -
self righteous indignation
self-justification
accountability avoidance
When I analyze my self-talk I gain clarity into my motives and leadership development opportunities. Just recently I told my self that someone I was working with had a "bad attitude." Now, it's not important whether they did or not, the point is, if I tell myself someone has a bad attitude I will naturally treat that person and see their actions in a negative frame, thus proving my point to myself. My brain will look for things to reinforce this. I needed to step back, reflect on my own attitude, measuring it against my goals for this relationship, and reframe my self-talk. Again, this opportunity for change was on my side of the street, not his. And you know what? It worked. When I changed my attitude, re-framed my self-talk, I closed the distance my self-talk had created between us.
Ask yourself. . .
Do I run my thinking by others for the B.S. factor in it?
Can I analyze what I tell myself and how well it's working for me to meet my goals for the relationship?
Can I open my mind to see how my thinking is negatively effecting my actions?
To read more about self-talk and leadership development, here's a great article:
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