Over the past couple of months, we’ve been sharing how you can use our leadership model, Leader in You®, to support you in building emotional agility, empathy, and in managing your own stress.

Last week, we provided the overview to the third step in our framework, called Act with POWER.

POWER is an acronym we use to help you remember five core actions that powerful leaders must do to move forward on important issues and initiatives.

  • Possibility Mindset: “What’s possible in this situation?”
  • Ownership and Transparency: “Why does this matter to me, the team, and the company?”
  • We-Focus: “What’s our shared vision or goal?”
  • Enable Action: “What action can we take to move forward?”
  • Review and Refine: “What’s working and what’s not working?”

When you work with these five core actions, you’ll increase your success, engage others to support your efforts, and stay on track as you navigate the opportunities and challenges that each day brings.Today, we’ll start with P which stands for Possibilities or Possibility Mindset.

POSSIBILITY MINDSET

The question to ask yourself is, “What are the possibilities INHERENT in the obstacles and challenges?”

Even the most effective leaders feel the stress and destabilizing aspects of obstacles and challenges. Yet, by Pausing and Reflecting, they’re able to come back to the question, “What are the possibilities INHERENT in the obstacles and challenges?”

This shift away from reacting to the obstacles and challenges, to trusting that there are always possibilities, is a hallmark of great leaders, team members, coaches, and parents.

Think of some of the examples over the past few years of challenges and obstacles, like the Pandemic, political and social divisiveness, an economic downturn, and countless layoffs.

While we’ve all felt the obstacles and challenges of these past few years, we can also see that there have been new possibilities that have come from them.

  • learning new technologies and how to work from home
  • appreciating family, friends, colleagues, and teammates in a deeper sense
  • supporting leaders who have to face difficult decisions
  • reorganizing teams to work in new and more successful ways
  • joining local decision-makers to fight for inequities
  • growing and making your own food to save money

Most of us can easily get fixated on the obstacle instead of stepping back and trusting that the challenge itself can be filled with opportunity.

As you bump up against challenges and obstacles this week, take some time to see if you can come up with 3-5 unique answers to, “What are the possibilities inherent in this challenge?”

True leadership requires a pause,
and a focus on possibilities.

Once you can make the shift
to look for them,
you’ll be amazed at what you see!

Next week, we’ll talk about the next step in our ACT with POWER framework which is O for Ownership & Transparency.

Let us know how you’re using our Leader in You framework in your life.

If you’d like support
developing your leadership skills
contact us today.