Mentally Strong & Relevant

Sometimes people as me “what are two things” about leading that are REALLY critical. As many of you know, there is no easy answer to that. Leadership is highly situational and the “things” we need to do can vary widely by an individuals skill level and experience-for starters. Even ones emotional state preceding that situation will have an impact. Narrowing leadership down to “two things” is severely limiting the scope of a leaders impact.

But taking a macro level view of leadership, I sometimes respond to that question with: 1) stay mentally strong (healthy and resilient) and 2) stay relevant.

The basic reasons being that when we are not mentally strong (built up resiliency to stress and adversity), we just can’t think with agility and clarity and don’t make our best decisions. We won’t interact adaptively. Mental strength is a brain wiring function-which all of us can work on by applying various strategies. When we are not relevant (attuned to the situation, current to trends, adding major value to solutions, open to varying perspectives), we may not resonate with others or be able to relate to diverse situations. Our perceived “stock price” drops as a result.

So we can at look at maximizing our effectiveness as leaders by conditioning ourselves mentally for the stress and challenges that are yet to come and commit to lifelong learning and adaptability. In this way, we can appreciate diversity of views as well as offer differentiating perspectives. The sum of all that boosts our mental strength and amplifies our relevance.