You Can Be a Leader: Leadership Principles to Achieve Excellence

Chapter Fourteen Resources

So what it your biggest leadership resource? You! Of course, it's you and it has always been you. You need to learn how to protect this valuable resource by taking care of yourself. As I tell my teenage kids, the magic ingredients are exercise, sleep, a good diet, and get out and do fun things. Being well rested, physically fit, and not in an energy drink or candy bar induced hypoglycemic sugar or caffeine buzz, will make you a better leader. Eat well and learn to enjoy the good things in life like great food. Stay away from the fast food. Do these things and you will have the stamina to last out those long meetings and remain level headed when the time comes to make an important decision. I always tell my military students: These habits will make you a better war fighter.

Another thing to help you improve your performance is the ability to relax. Mindfulness, Yoga, running, or meditation all work well to maintain a healthy mind and emotional stability. Your challenge is to find what works for you, and do it religiously. Personally, I do a combination of running, mindfulness, and meditation. Unfortunately, my current lifestyle doesn't allow for the Yoga lifestyle. Hopefully someday in the future it will, but for now I need a workable alternative hobby. Running is my go-to sport. After fifteen minutes of vigorous running, all of my stress, anger, and worries fade away. I'm a better leader and more civil at the dinner table if I get to run a few days per week.

One of the things I do to focus and relax at work is to practice a few moments of mindfulness each day. As I fill my water bottle at the drinking fountain, I listen to the bubbling noise the water makes. I focus on the sound changes as the water crests at the rim of the bottle. I feel the bottle turn cold as the water creeps up the side to the level of my fingers. For these twenty seconds of my life, I forget everything around me. This small routine helps me refocus when I get back to my desk.

Another technique I recommend is to close your eyes and just listen to everything around you. Allow your mind to freely roam. Focus on your breathing coming in and out. Do this for a few moments and you will feel refreshed and more energetic.

Meditation. Wow! What a bad word for a serious leader. I know meditation sounds like a bunch of Buddha, granola-crunchy, hippy-bullshit, but guess what? It works. I did this the night before and directly before running races. The practice helped me clear my mind and focus. I won races. I also did this prior to flying difficult or dangerous missions in the military. It worked. I was relaxed, focused, and ready for the fight. Nobody likes a stressed-out pilot in the cockpit or boss, for that matter.

"Welcome aboard, folks. You are going to have a really bad flight today." Doesn't sound like a plane you would like to board, does it? Take the time to focus and clear your mind before tackling a serious project.

Taking a few moments at night, in the morning before you get out of bed, or at your desk can clear your mind and help you focus on the task at hand. Give it a try before you discount it. I learned how to meditate as a teenager by reading a book my dad kept in his home office. There are hundreds of books out there, along with numerous classes in your community if you want some training on how to meditate. Another bonus of meditation is you don't require a special place or teacher once you learn how to meditate. You can meditate anywhere and feel the beneficial results in a short time. The more you practice...the easier and more beneficial it becomes.

Another thing I recommend is to give yourself some you time occasionally. Have a hobby outside of work. I must admit, I am an outdoor nerd. Camping, hiking, travelling, or mountain biking all calm my soul. One of my favorite hobbies is skiing, and snowboarding. When I get home from just one day of skiing; my wife comments about my good mood for the next three days.

A morning of paddle boarding in the mist of the Rio Grande River while listening to the quiet bubbling of the river, and the birds chirping calms me down for a day or two. The whole experience only takes three hours to accomplish. These hobbies are good for my soul.