self awareness Archives | Leadership Reality

The Mindful Leader | Part 5

Daniel Montgomery August 6, 2018 self awareness

DANIEL MONTGOMERY Founder & CEO Leadership Reality How close are you with your employees? Do you feel very connected? I once saw an episode of the Office where Michael Scott spent the entire episode trying to work his way into the “loop.” In scene after scene, he’d awkwardly insert himself into conversations and ask cringe-inducing questions like, “What’s the scuttlebutt?” Michael Scott is a farce, for sure. Still, the image of lonely manager floating around the office and trying to force a connection with his employees sends shivers down my spine. Leaders struggle to connect with their people. Half of the CEOs out there wrestle mightily with loneliness. When asked, 61% of them say it negatively impacts their job performance. What contributes to leader loneliness? Really, what doesn’t? The corner office The exalted title The pay disparity The authority barrier The generational gap Leadership is an inherently lonely enterprise. The …

The Mindful Leader | Part 4

Daniel Montgomery July 30, 2018 self awareness

DANIEL MONTGOMERY Founder & CEO Leadership Reality How’s your body doing right now? I’ll admit, that’s a strange question to lead with. I’m not a doctor, and you’re not my patient. This is a blog, not an exam room. Still, I’ve been amazed to see just how easy it is to get so engrossed in our work that we fail to notice what’s going on in our bodies. Do you have a headache right now? Are you clenching your jaw? How’s your lower back doing? What about your shoulders? When was the last time something on you didn’t hurt? Unless you’re on a construction site or a battlefield, leadership for you probably happens more in pixels and ink than in sweat and toil. For the office-dwellers among us, we just don’t think about our physical condition very much at all. The trouble is, our minds really do matter when it …

The Mindful Leader | Part 3

Daniel Montgomery July 23, 2018 self awareness

DANIEL MONTGOMERY Founder & CEO Leadership Reality Are your employees disengaged? Would you notice if they were? According to Gallup, only a third of Americans are engaged at work. The rest are either passively skating by (50%) or actively trying to bring down the company from the inside (17%). Every year, disengaged employees cost American business billions of dollars. In combatting this epidemic, smart leaders have discovered that workers—especially millennials—need more than a parking spot and a paycheck to engage with their work. What is that more? Some call it passion. Others call it purpose. I call it place. Mapping Our Place as Leaders In simple terms, place is where you find yourself at any given point in your story. Yes, that includes space (where you are) and time (when you are). More than that, place describes the social, emotional, and cultural environments in which you live and work. For …

Leader Archetype #9 | The Peacemaker

Daniel Montgomery July 20, 2018 self awareness

SARAH BRAUD Contributor & CEO Braud Creative Leadership Style of a Nine The Nine. The Crown of the enneagram. The Archetype that reflects all the other numbers, so much so that they have a hard time identifying themselves as Nines. Accommodating, supportive, non-judgmental, practical and hard-working, the Nine leader will sacrifice extensively for a genuine concern for those on their team, working tirelessly to promote the agenda of their organization or community. Every true Nine would cringe at any description that draws such positive attention to themselves, however, these leaders are so easy to like. The archetypal leader who is digging in the ditches alongside her people, often called The Peacemaker or The Mediator, leads by example and by reaching consensus. The Problem with a Nine Leader The leadership style of the Nine begins with gathering people together and then letting everyone else shine, often leaving their own opinion out …

The Mindful Leader | Part 2

Daniel Montgomery July 16, 2018 Reality, self awareness

DANIEL MONTGOMERY Founder & CEO Leadership Reality Have you ever had a morning like this one? It’s 9 AM. For the past hour, you’ve tried (and failed) to start in on your to-do list. For some reason, you can’t stop stressing about that upcoming meeting with senior leadership. So, you distract yourself with a little email. 30 minutes later, you decide to get back in the saddle and make a few phone calls. As soon as you pick up the phone, you remember the call you blew yesterday. Afraid to repeat that ugly performance, you fire up Facebook instead. You’re just going to check in and make sure you didn’t miss anything important, of course. Another half hour goes by. The phone rings. There’s an emergency in production. Congratulations! You just lost the rest of your day to crisis management. So much for that to-do list. Time is on my …

Leader Archetype #8 | The Challenger

Daniel Montgomery July 12, 2018 self awareness

SARAH BRAUD Contributor & CEO Braud Creative Leadership Style of an Eight The Challenger. The Protector. The Boss. All these title descriptors couldn’t encompass the larger-than-life style of the Eight leadership archetype. These assertive, confident, powerful people came out of the womb knowing what they wanted and who should get it for them. Sometimes aggressive, Eights are motivated by the desire to control their environment, for good or evil. These black & white decision makers easily fill the leadership void wherever it may be and makes up the majority of CEOs in the US as their personality is focused on strength, avoiding weakness, protection for the underdog, and moving the ball forward at any cost. While many find Eights to be intimidating, Eights are often surprised to hear that others fear them because in their core, this archetype is incredibly sensitive. They are drawn to defending the oppressed and look …

The Mindful Leader | Part 1

Daniel Montgomery July 9, 2018 Reality, self awareness

DANIEL MONTGOMERY Founder & CEO Leadership Reality Tell me if this sounds familiar: You’ve been heads down for hours working on a critical project. You finally come up for air, only to realize it’s 6 PM and you’re not even halfway done. Your back is in knots from an entire day spent hunched over a laptop. You’ve not seen any of your team members since the morning huddle, much less interacted with anyone outside the digital wasteland that is social media. You’re tired and dejected. You’ve been busy for hours, but you have no clear sense why. You wonder whether anything you’ve accomplished—this week, this month, this year—is of any real and lasting value. Oh, and you just realized you promised to pick up the kids from soccer at 5:30… Have you been here? I know I have. For business leaders, it seems like we’re always chasing after that mythical sweet …

Leader Archetype #7 | The Enthusiast

Daniel Montgomery June 28, 2018 self awareness

SARAH BRAUD Contributor & CEO Braud Creative Leadership Style of a Seven “I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.” – Steve Jobs A notorious leader, Steve Jobs is also listed in various enneagram articles as a Seven leader. This Enthusiast leadership archetype is known, much like Steve Jobs, for their innovation and imagination. Forward-looking planners who are constantly on the move for the next best thing, imagine all the creative possibilities connected to whatever interests them. Options make Sevens feel good, so don’t try to put constraints on them. They are quick, spontaneous and engaging storytellers, but rarely have the patience to get those stories down on paper; they are much to pre-occupied in collecting, living, and experiencing the next adventure. As leaders, they celebrate …

Leader Archetype #6 | The Loyalist

Daniel Montgomery June 11, 2018 self awareness

SARAH BRAUD Contributor & CEO Braud Creative Leadership Style of a Six It’s no secret that I am a Game of Thrones fangirl, because at some point you have to stop using all your examples from Lord of the Rings or Chronicles of Narnia, you know? Game of Thrones offers a veritable buffet of leaders to analyze, their lifelong transformational journeys are right there condensed into seven seasons (HBO just announced the final season 8 will be only 4 episodes to be released in 2019 – oh, the agony of the wait.) Although there are more than a few Sixes to choose from (Sir Davos, Gilly, Samwell Tarly, for starters), the most representative archetype of the Six can be seen in the institution of the Night’s Watch, a military order dedicated to standing guard at the wall that borders and protects the realms of men from what’s lurking beyond. The …

Leader Archetype #5 | The Investigator

Daniel Montgomery June 5, 2018 self awareness

SARAH BRAUD Contributor & CEO Braud Creative Leadership Style of a Five The leadership archetype of The Investigator is one of the mad scientist, expert, genius, the quiet specialist, the observer, detached mastermind. Five’s are driven by their need to get home before their energy runs out. They work totally independent of others, and measure how much everything will cost them. Safety and security in a future world is as important as not looking foolish or unknowledgeable. Curiosity may kill some cats, but Five’s come alive when their curiosity is piqued. “Why?” and “How?” are their favorite questions. These folks are conceptual thinkers and rarely have time for the direct implications of them. Rational versus relational, intellectualize versus romanticize, minimize versus maximize. These leaders rank the highest in competency. Fans of The Big Bang Theory will recognize Sheldon as a Five. The Problem with a Five Leader As part of …

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