“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. — Dwight D. Eisenhower”

The First Days as a Leader

Imagine stepping into a leadership role. It feels like standing at the base of a towering mountain, preparing to climb without prior experience. Sure, you’re strong and capable, but the sheer height of what you don’t know looms over you, imposing and vast. Everyone around you expects you’ll climb and reach the summit quickly and efficiently despite the steep and challenging path ahead.

Sounds familiar? But wait… you are already the boss… why are things so complicated? Being a leader doesn’t just mean you’re the boss. You need to be able to inspire and guide. To reach the summit, you need a team; you cannot do it alone.

The key skill for any leader is inspiring others. Getting your first follower is often the hardest part, but it’s also the first step towards true leadership.

It is easier to inspire others when you know the magic words. Magic words to inspire do exist. I’m here to share these words, hoping they’ll help your path as they did to many others.

You might often think:

“The problem is my team doesn’t care enough about the details.”

“The problem is my boss won’t listen to my opinion, even though I’ve been through this before.”

Yes… ok… but tell me the words…

“I lead myself, and my behavior leads others.”

🪄The Magic Words

The first step in becoming a leader is to shift your mindset and focus on self-leadership, making your behavior the driving force behind everything.

It all starts with you. With taking responsibility. “I lead myself, and my behavior leads others.”

These words are powerful because they change how you see things. It’s not about leading others but leading yourself.

How do we apply this to our earlier thoughts?

With the magic words, your thoughts shift to:

“The problem is my behavior hasn’t made my team…”

“The problem is my behavior hasn’t made my boss want to…”

1️⃣ Leading Yourself

Start by evaluating yourself in three areas and reflect on where you stand and your next steps:

• Awareness: Everything about your current state — who you are, where you’re at, your strengths, your personality, etc.
• Vision: Everything about your future — who you want to be, where you see yourself, how and with whom you want to be, etc.
• Actions within your control: Everything you can do without others— how you’ll bridge the gap from your current state to your future, what resources you have, etc.

2️⃣ Leading Others

Begin by understanding the same three areas for others …

• Awareness: Understand their current state.
• Vision: Understand their future aspirations.
• Actions within your control: Empower them to build their bridge to the future.

⚠️ Achieving this follows a strict order: first, learning to listen; second, doing things that enable others to reach their next level with your behavior.

❓Reflection Questions

1️⃣ How can you better understand your and your team’s awareness, vision, or actions?

2️⃣ What three behaviors could help you empower those you lead to reach the next level?

Next Post Preview

This post is part of “A Hearth of Leadership” series. Get ready for a deep dive into the art of leadership communication in the next post of this series!

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This post was inspired by an article written by my friend Mario Acevedo; if you can read Spanish, I recommend you to follow him in Substack!

🇪🇸 https://substack.com/@marioacevedoaguilar

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Disclaimer: This post was created with the help of AI tools to improve efficiency, required hours of dedicated writing, and contains my experience in the field.