What is the Elite Leader?

A few weeks ago a reader asked me a very poignant question concerning a June event.  “How can I take time off for learning, when I am trying so very hard to earn the next level, I don’t want to risk losing two days.” While I admired her tenacity to identify the goal as well as the “stick to it-ness” of her intent, I wanted to say “how can you NOT take the time to refuel to face your goal?”  An essential part of our leading is realizing that we must refuel ourselves in order to give to others in our care the support they need.  Elite leadership recognizes that there is value, need, and purpose in all phases of leadership.  In the beginning leaders identify a vision of what and who they seek to become. They study the steps involved in the goal desired and take time to learn and experience the action steps for themselves that lead to the first outcomes. Training first involves repeating the new skills consistently until actions and sequences are learned as well as purposes perceived.

It’s a no excuses stretching, much as an athlete is expected to run his/her race long after the stretching and daily practices are novel.  However, it isn’t long before a leader takes the lead and realizes there is more to leadership than winning the prize or achieving personally a goal. There is an understanding that relationships to self and responsibility others also must be balanced. We must build strong relationships so to allow for the surges to flow when it’s time to give focused attention to finishing a goal, relationships are resilient enough from deposits made to weather the trials.  Leadership requires inspiring others through thoughts, words, and deeds. It means identifying and encouraging your own growth path while also growing others, it means growing a thick skin and a thicker tolerance when painful experiences overrule a team members kind nature until they too, learn the purpose and processes of learning to lead themselves…especially on the hard days.

    Elite leadership is a narrow path of learning and executing best practices, becoming an ambassador of encouragement with an on-going awareness of learning and earning new levels of compentence through experience. It’s knowing that more skills are caught by example than taught by words. It’s a place of seeing the best in people even when an individual risks showing you the worst of their frustrations.  The elite leader understands there are seasons of growth, seasons of learning and maintaining, and seasons of surging forward again.  All of the seasons involve carefully balancing consistency with stretching for the next levels of competency of new skills while maintaining efforts. In a strong organization the elite leader facilitates the discovery and learning of practices that build the person AND the company without sacrificing momentum or energy to emotional drama.

Elite leaders recognize the need for professionalism as much as they recognize the need for health, wealth of spirit, and the need to learn the habits that support their visions. They intentionally set goals and gather with others who inspire and share their experience as well as plan for gatherings and opportunities to share their own paths with those who demonstrate the willingness to stretch their own wings and skills. The elite leader understands the value of presence and how lending hope and faith to an emerging leader not only fuels their journey, but empowers their own.

I am asked quite often what makes the difference. How does one become the leader to leaders with intention. The answer is quite simple, though quite complex as well….are you ready….

She begins with intention, arms herself with education and action, she engages consistent learning experiences to emerge with new understanding of the value of intentional actions. She aligns her actions into systems and sequential goals set and met with momentum ever rewarding the efforts and outcomes of her decisions. She regroups and re-emerges when setbacks occur for in those moments her strength is deepened, her compassion is learned and her resilience is birthed for the day when someone in her organization will need the knowledge that she too has been there.  She honors those who run beside her and listens to those who ran before her, she encourages those who run their own race towards her….and she gathers to restore and refuel with those who can share their own encouragement for her journey.

How do elite leaderships become who they are?  They begin where they are and set out to be the best they can be and when they achieve that, they set the goal again with new awareness of how best they can continue to grow. When setbacks occur they do  not isolate themselves, but reach out and reach up for wisdom from those who have faced their own challenges and overcome them.  That’s why I personally love Fall Retreats, it has always been my own time to focus on my leadership and to kindle the flames of elite leadership within myself and to share the journey of rising up the desire to engage the special gifts and elite leadership within each of us.

I hope you and your leadership team will join us this Fall for Beautifully Bold at the Skytop Resort in the Poconos. The Journey to your personal path to Elite Leadership begins September 25th.