#14 The 5 Disciplines of Leadership That I Learned the Hard Way

Then 5 disciplines of leadership that got me to where I am - that I learned the hard way:

 

1.Time Management

When you are on house arrest, you have to show up to your CO every Sunday morning, and present a document that literally details the next 168 hours.

 

Quick tip: create a time budget

 

2. Responsibility

Be a person that does what you say you are going to do. Not just for others, but for yourself. How many of us let others down by being “that guy”, or “that girl”?

More importantly, how many times have you told you that you would do X, Y and X this year… only to let yourself down time and time again.

In my situation, you get to a point where you realize that no one is going to do it for you. And growing up, being someone that was well aware of my potential, I knew that if I didn’t do it for myself, it wasn’t getting done. And I could either choose to sleep on a deflating air mattress every night or do what it took to make something of myself.

 

Quick tip: write everything down on a running to-do list

 

Do what you say you’re going to do.

 

3. Driven by learning

Leaders are learners.

 

Quick tip: commit to learning something new every day, week, month and quarter.

 

4. Patient urgency

Having this relative and dual perspective of time, you can live in both the now and the future. Patient urgency is the combination of foresight to prepare for a big idea, willingness to wait for the right market conditions, and agility to act straight away when conditions ripen.

 

Like Blockbuster, who failed to see the writing on the well and act in urgency. Or WebVan.com?

 

Quick tip: Have all your dreams and goals written down and refer to them as often as you can. By doing this, you will have a much better idea as time goes on as to which idea or goal to act on. Also, by being better with time management, responsibility and learning more, you will naturally be prepared for these opportunities.

 

5. Faith

Yes, I mean faith in God. But even more so, faith in yourself. Faith that no matter who you are today, who you see in the mirror, what people say about you or what you have or haven’t accomplished so far, especially compared to what you had planned by now, that you are capable of far more than you can think or imagine. I was once the kid in school that was so poor that I drew the Nike sign on my hand-me-down socks that I got made fun of. I was the kid that didn’t make the little league football team because I kept showing up to practice with no pads. I was the kid that, in 7th grade, my teacher told me, in front of everyone, that my homework was to look up the definition of “miserable failure”, because that’s what he told me I’d be.

 

You have to believe in yourself before anyone else will. And by taking a small step every day in the direction of these 5 disciplines, you can change your life and the trajectory of your future.