Business Consulting Services for JP Valentine Consulting LLC

Here are some tried and tested Principals of Leadership I have learned over the years when faced with a new challenge or task:

You have just become a new leader or are facing a new challenge or task that you must mobilize your team to take on and successfully complete. What should you do?

1. The first hand you take must be your own.

Ok, so you face a knotty leadership challenge. You’re called upon to lead your team forward to meet the challenge and implement a solution that will move your organization forward. But the path to a resolution seems like too tall a mountain to climb. How can you lead your team to the summit?

You must first lead yourself.  Define the challenge so it is crystal clear in your own mind. Define what you think success would look like. This is harder than you might think, but it ensures you’re taking on the right battle.

2. Take the first step.

You may be overwhelmed by the complexity of the challenge. There seem to be so many pieces to the puzzle, so many paths you could take in pursuit of a solution. How do you choose? Here’s a secret: it doesn’t matter which you choose first. Just take the first step-any step. It will begin to mobilize yourself and your team to move forward.

3. Eyes straight ahead.

Once you start, don’t get distracted by the noise, the self-doubts, the doubts flung at you by others like chaff in the wind. Keep your eyes straight ahead and on the goal of the summit.

4. Take the next step.

Now you’ve started moving. Don’t get paralyzed again by the complexity of the challenges or the multiple paths that continue to taunt you as alternatives. Simply take the next step.

5. Find your fire. Be your fire.

You’ll need to tap into your inner fire to persevere when things get tough and you become discouraged over your slow progress. Remember what the passion was that  led you to this role. Remember what the passion was for the organization’s mission that motivated you to join them. Keep this fire burning. 

6. Be not only a leader – but a follower of the people you lead.

Progress does not come from your efforts alone. Learn to listen to your people. Learn to encourage them to share the tasks of leadership.

7. Listen to the wind, change course, if necessary, but don’t be fooled by it.

Constantly monitor the external environment. Have the conditions that gave rise to the leadership challenge changed? Has support for your plan changed? Adjust if necessary but don’t relinquish your leadership.

8. Listen to the wisdom of others, but the last voice you must listen to is your own.

Wisdom lies in the group, but at the end of the day you must also heed the inner voice of your own wisdom.

9. The summit is not the final goal, but you must travel there to find it.

Solving a particular leadership challenge – reaching the summit of its resolution may not be what the organization really needs but you must still solve it to find what is really needed.

10. Understanding the final goal means looking deep into your own heart – a steeper climb to reach than any mountain.