The central self is not about doing but being. Being who you are is the first step. The second step is the doing. You have to be yourself. It is being who you truly are as a unique human being characterized by possibility. Zander and Zander further explain that the central self is concerned with being free in who we are, listening, inquiring, and compassionate; it is open and aware. The centered leader requires the transcendence of personality and includes behavior, vision, and growth. The central self is the remarkably generative, prolific, and creative nature of ourselves and the world. The central vs. calculating self is a derivative of the spiritual dimension of your life. A centered leader pulls from their life’s mental, social, physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions, especially the spiritual element. Often, the spiritual is the most ignored dimension of your humanity. People fear the spiritual. It would be best if you reconsidered the development of your spiritual and mental, social, emotional, and physical dimensions.
Centered leadership addresses the whole person—with an emphasis on the manifestation of each dimension (i.e., awareness, connection, empowerment, and performance), integration of each constituent element (i.e., personality, behavior, vision, and growth), and the congruence of each constituent component that can lead to centeredness resulting in your full functioning, fulfillment, and a more effective process for influence. Centered Leadership is developed through behavioral techniques that allow the authentic self to emerge to the observable surface and breathe. The outer self is visible to everyone, and unfortunately, most people perceive only the visible aspects of the leader. The leaders believe in their fake reality, and others buy into the phony persona. You can focus your energies and perform at new levels by aligning each constituent element and presenting an accurate sense of who you are. You will confidently engage in stressful situations, and you will be able to handle difficult people calmly while remaining determined to accomplish your goals while being your true self and facing challenging situations and circumstances.
Being centered means having a reference point or a place that allows you to reset if you have to and come back to when life’s challenges throw you out of alignment, and your emotions pull you out of your centered place. The center is the place you know you have to get back to because it’s when you’re at your best. By achieving centeredness, you can produce more thoughtful, strategic, and authentic responses rather than reacting to everyday stressors. The authentic interplay of your personality, behavior, vision, and growth increases your influence. Centeredness is being aware of what is going on around you and what is happening to you while realizing how your behavior connects you to people and opportunities. That connection empowers you to pursue and fulfill your vision. Your vision requires that you perform, resulting in unanticipated growth and impact. This will be an exciting journey. Let me encourage you to take things as they come. Be as honest as possible because it will only help you quickly become more influential with yourself and others. The place to get started is with a personal SWOT Analysis.
SWOT ANALYSIS
You will begin by performing a SWOT Analysis. A SWOT analysis is a process designed to facilitate a fact-based, objectively focused, data-driven review of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to your awareness, connection, empowerment, and performance as a leader. The point of this process is to carefully separate your reality (how you see things) from actuality (how things actually are) in your thinking and understanding of how you currently function compared to how you need to function to be successful. Let’s look at each section of the analysis.
Strengths
A strength helps you function at your best and pursue your vision. You have three types of strengths: personality, character, and skillset strengths. People often need clarification, thinking that all strengths are the same, but they’re not. You can build on your personality strengths but not change them because they are in your DNA. Everyone has twenty personality strengths and weaknesses, and they do not change. So, regarding your personality strengths, you want to be aware of them and act accordingly, seeking to enhance them by building strength-on-strength with your character and skillset strengths. As we advance, this book will explain how you can build on your personality strengths with character strengths and accurate and appropriate skillset strengths (i.e., strength-on-strength). Through reinforcement, you will practice your functioning; the better you get at your functioning, the more you will achieve a higher level of functioning. Next-level functioning improves higher functioning. For example, an athlete at the high school, college, and professional level practices and performs at those levels. The better the practice, the better the functioning, and the better the functioning, the better the practice, and that equals higher level performance for the next level. That means the technical proficiency of your practice makes you an improved performer. This is why the professional level is a much higher level of functioning than the high school level. However, your full functioning requires you to look at your weaknesses.
Weaknesses
A weakness hinders you from functioning at your best and pursuing your vision. You have two types of weaknesses: personality weaknesses and character weaknesses. People often confuse these two things, thinking that all weaknesses are the same, but they are not. You can’t change your personality weaknesses because they are in your DNA. You will always have your personality weakness because there is an equal and opposite weakness for every strength. On average, every individual has twenty personality strengths and weaknesses, and they do not change. So, regarding your personality weaknesses, you want to be aware of them and act accordingly to minimize them and admit to them. Part of being authentic is being aware of and acknowledging your weaknesses. In your SWOT analysis, separate your personality weaknesses from your character weaknesses. Character is learned and needs to be improved, but your character needs to be aligned with your personality strengths. You can always make improvements through practice and then perfect practice. The more you practice, the better you function, and the better your practicing gets as you function at a higher and higher level. Remember the examples of high school, college, and professional athletes. One thing to consider in your analysis is that a weakness in an unskilled area may or may not help you in your current situation. Not all skillset weaknesses must be addressed immediately because they may not significantly impact your current performance objectives. You have three categories of weaknesses: personality, character, and skillsets, providing plenty of opportunities to improve.
Opportunities
An opportunity is a situation or a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something, a favorable external factor that provides an advantage. Consider your opportunities by asking who, what, where, when, how, how often, and to what extent. Asking questions helps shape your perspective about what you need to do, want to, and like to do. Consider areas of growth and development as a person, reflect on your emotional intelligence, and think about your overall effectiveness in living life (personal and professional). Consider opportunities for you in your awareness, connection, empowerment, and performance. Review the Centered Leadership graph.
Threats
Threats are things that can hinder, deceive, or terminate your success. One area is ineffective efforts. When you keep trying but fail, you can get frustrated. For example, the performance capability of an executive leader on your team needs to improve. Your organizational or team culture needs to be more conducive to the conditions necessary for your expected performance level. The hierarchy in your organization limits your growth, development, or promotion opportunities, and this sort of threat to your career could be a sign to move on to another organization. The limiting factors of a fellow leader could be a factor that you need to consider. Carefully reflect on the threat areas and assess yourself in your career; focus on your level of awareness, connections, ability to empower people, and ability to get people to perform at their best. Consider the urgency of the situation or circumstances and their potential impact. Then, work to deliver on what is required of you to succeed.
Zander, R.S., and Zander, B. (2002). The Art of Possibility. Penguin Books.
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