How you behave is the barrier between you and your dream

I’m really pleased that you are continuing to read through my articles. What this is telling me is that you want to become a highly effective leader. You want to serve your team better, and together accomplish amazing things.

The more you keep reading through my articles, you are gaining more and more of an advantage over the rest of the “leaders”. What you are learning will serve you and your team a lot. The fact that you have invested in yourself shows that you want to make that difference.

1. Leaders Are Learners

Most people who are in leadership positions don’t think they need to learn anything about leadership, but they are wrong. They see the position as the end of the journey, when actually it is the beginning.

You are becoming a lot more valuable to your team and your organisation as you strive towards becoming a highly effective leader. Your influence will grow beyond your team and through your organisation, with the more action you take on applying what you are learning in this article.

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You will also start to separate yourself from the managers, who don’t think they need to learn anything about leadership.

However, don’t miss the point here. You MUST take action on what you are learning. Reading this article and taking an interest in leadership is not enough. Leadership is not about you, however it does start with you. To influence your team to take action, you must be the one to first take action.

Are you beginning to see why you need to grow as a leader? What I am trying to do is to help you visualise and see clearly why you need to apply what you are learning. I want to help you see how it will benefit you, your team and your organisation.

Being a manager is a very important and lucrative role in any organisation, so you need to have the best knowledge to do the job. But, you also need to constantly grow beyond your position.

The potential that you have to become better as a leader and as a person is huge. Together we need to harness that potential so you can focus.

Who is the hardest person you will ever lead and influence? YOU. To grow as a leader you need to focus, and what I want to focus on is how and what you should do to grow. I will continue to explain why you need to grow also.

2. Can You Lead Yourself?

Take into account that I can tell you how, what, and why, but I cannot do any of this for you. You will need to put the work in to apply what you are learning from my articles and develop yourself.

Are you looking to improve your job and your team? Then, you will need to improve yourself. Are you looking to increase your salary? Then, you will need to improve yourself. Are you looking to be promoted within your organisation? Then, you will need to improve yourself.

Are you looking to get a better job outside of your organisation and move on? Then, you will need to improve yourself. Are you looking for a better life for you and your family? Then, you will need to improve yourself.

All of those questions are why you need to work on and improve yourself, before you help and influence others to do the same. Anything that you want in your life to be improved, MUST START WITH YOU.

In any area of your life, not just leadership, this principle is the same everywhere. If you want to be better, then you need to improve. If you want to have more, then you need to improve.

This may sound blunt but it’s the truth. If you want to grow in life, you need to start with yourself. To make these improvements you need to be deliberate. Improvements will start to happen in your life when you start deliberately developing yourself. That is a promise I can make right now.

3. Working On Yourself Deliberately

When you start working on yourself deliberately, you will start to see changes in yourself. Others will start to see those changes too. People will be complimenting you for the changes you have made. That is when you know that what you are working on is actually working.

For some people, when they start making changes, they will happen quickly. For others it will take a bit more time. If it takes more time for you then don’t worry, it will happen. The important thing is to NOT GIVE UP.

You don’t have to be intense with your learning, just be consistent each day, and put the time into it. What you are doing is increasing your knowledge, and that is what is important.

If you consistently invest the time in developing yourself, and DON’T STOP, then you will eventually be able to achieve things that you probably can’t even comprehend right now. All it needs is the consistent time investment each day.

I am living proof that this works. In 2003 I was made redundant from my job as a mechanical engineer. I had only completed my apprenticeship a month earlier and I was 21 years old. I was panicking. What am I going to do?

That was the question I couldn’t get out of my head. I took a job as a technician with a bottle making company for 4 months and left I was then a heating fitter for 8 months and left.

Then I joined the railway. It was when I joined Liverpool’s train operating company when I was 22 years old, that I started to work on myself.

I persuaded the company to fund my 4 year part time engineering degree. At the same time I joined an engineering graduate scheme, and I started studying leadership on my own time. Now, 14 years later I have worked in Scotland as an engineering production manager and performance manager.

I have worked for Siemens in London as an engineering performance manager, I have been a deputy professional head of engineering, and also a senior project manager for a worldwide engineering consultancy.

Most of all, I am a chartered engineer with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, I am a mentor for aspiring engineers, I am an author and a speaker. If you would have said all this would happen to me when I was made redundant, I would have told you to “Get lost!”

You too can have a similar experience and become so much more.

4. Are You Inspired?

I hope this can inspire you because I am really not telling you this to impress you. There is absolutely no reason for me to impress you.

However, I have every reason to inspire you and prove to you that taking action on what you are learning will work for you, and for your team. You are still reading this article, so that tells me that you want more out of your life and your career.

I had no thought about being a chartered engineer, a mentor, an author and a speaker in 2003. I didn’t even know what any of them were.

It may not be on your radar to become a chartered engineer or an author, but it is clear that you want to become more in life just like I do. At this very moment you may not have the self-belief that you can achieve your ultimate dream or goal. If you don’t then I am not going to tell you that you can.

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However, I know you agree that it is possible. So, what you are getting from me is leadership principles and tools that will help you to make your dream come true.

Your dream may be to climb the leadership ladder within your company, I am telling you it is possible. Your dream may be to become the managing director or the CEO, I am telling you it is possible. Your dream may be to one day own your own company, I am telling you it is possible.

Remember, leadership is not about you, however it does start with you. Developing and working on yourself also starts with you. Keeping the focus on improving yourself will also improve your leadership, and will help you when influencing your team and beyond.

The best leaders in the world deliberately work on themselves consistently EVERY DAY. Make it your business to do the same.

The difference between a leader and a follower is; leaders deliberately and consistently work on improving themselves EVERY DAY.

I welcome hearing how this post has influenced the way you think, the way you lead, or the results you have achieved because of what you’ve learned in it. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me by commenting below.