Being Conscientious

Every six months I try to take some time and focus on what my core beliefs are regarding leadership.  Yesterday I was taking time to do this, looking over old journals and notes of things that had influenced me, and helped me gain clarity. I was thinking about how important relationships are when you’re a leader.  One thing that I’m a big believer in is making sure that you’re continually growing and a great way to do that is through reading. I’m currently reading a book called Be Exceptional by Joe Navarro.  Joe was talking about the things that he believed were the most important parts and pieces to being a great leader and one of the things that he mentioned was the importance of being conscientious

In reading what Joe was talking about, I started to think about all the things that I do as a leader for others that would be considered conscientious, and then it dawned on me. We make leadership much harder than it needs to be. Sometimes instead of thinking about all the things that we should do as a leader when it comes to relationships we should simply focus on being conscientious. When we take time to be actively and genuinely conscientious, our relationships with others will naturally grow and improve. In being conscientious, we are giving people the respect, empathy and attention that they deserve and oftentimes crave.  Being conscientious doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t have to be difficult. It just has to be doing what’s right.

I’ve always felt like one of my most important philosophies when it came to leadership was keeping it simple. It doesn’t matter what I’m trying to do, the more simple you make things the easier it is to follow and the more likely you are to have success. We all can become overwhelmed by leadership especially when we think about all the different things that we do as leaders, particularly when it comes to our work with others; however, if we live by some basic guidelines like being conscientious leadership doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It just becomes a matter of doing what's right for others.  

My call to action for you is to consciously focus on being a more conscientious leader this week and in the weeks to follow.  I’m willing to guarantee if you make being conscientious your focus not only will leadership become easier, but it will also be more satisfying and make those around you more likely to work harder to achieve the goals you have for your school or organization.  Have a great week and remember when your commitment is greater than your feelings you get results.