Six Ways To Strengthen Your Leadership

Strengthening your leadership muscles means being proactive!

Whether you enjoy physical strength training or not, it’s not difficult to conjure up what that looks like. You might picture a gym full of weight machines, a host of free weights in your basement, or a mat and a band. Each of those options provides the muscle-building tension needed for your muscles to grow when executed consistently and with good form.

The key: the right amount of tension. Too little tension and your muscles won’t grow. Too much tension and you may end up injured. Knowing the optimal amount of tension to develop your muscles is essential – a bit of a strain, but not pushing them too far.

Envisioning what might strengthen your leadership muscles on the other hand – that might be less clear. Here are some practical and intentional ways to work your leadership muscles:

1. Developing Yourself In Key Areas

In college, I was one of two women who regularly spent time in the weight room. It was easy to spot those who were serious about lifting and those who weren’t. It all came down to how they worked their legs!

You see – some guys thought working their arms was enough. As a result, their arms were buff, but because they neglected their legs, they looked like flamingos! And trust me – this was LONG before skinny jeans were a thing!

There were other guys who liked the “idea” of working out so they spent hours and hours in the gym, but accomplished very little!

As a leader, are you doing the same thing?

When you skip developing yourself in a well-rounded way, it shows! Developing the parts that others see, but neglecting key areas that might seem less noticeable is like the guys who focused on arms but avoided leg day.

Are you reading books, participating in workshops, and a taking a dozen other steps to enhance your ability to lead, but not allowing the knowledge you gain to translate into action?

No one sets out to be a flamingo-like leader! However, knowing what to focus on developing is not always obvious. That’s why asking for feedback, doing a Trusted Leader 360, and working with a coach are so effective! They help to identify the key areas that need attention and as you intentionally take steps to grow in those important areas, your leadership is strengthened.

2. Watching Your Form

Whether you are using an X3 System, free weights, or Nautilus, your form matters! The lack of proper form is the number one reason for injury! Strains, extended recovery time, or issues with your lower back, shoulders, or knees are the result!

When executing exercises with weights with proper form, your muscles get the maximum benefit. However, if you skip warming up, position your body incorrectly; throw the weights relying on momentum rather than strength, the likelihood of you hurting yourself increases! The same is true if you rush through the exercises or don’t breathe. You just might end up doing more harm than good!

Leaders may have the best of intentions, but in reality, may be diminishing those they lead because they lack proper form. Ultimately, that doesn’t do anyone any favors!

As a leader, your form matters too! Here are some examples of common, counterproductive, “bad form” that leaders often engage in.

3. Working Less!

These days, I still enjoy lifting weights. As I’ve gotten older, I allow more time for my muscles to recover and take a rest day every week. That’s typically Saturday. When I stick to that, I get the best results!

As a leader, it’s important to recognize your limits too! The temptation is to take on more and more, which means working more and more! Beware of falling into that trap in an attempt to get it all done, prove your value, or to try and be enough.

Working excessively wears you out, leads to burnout, and it’s counterproductive. You can’t show up at your best when you are exhausted!

Building muscle requires a rhythm of hard work and proper rest! Leaders – the very same thing applies to you!

4. Embracing Tension

Again, tension is good. It builds muscle.

To build your leadership muscles and excel as a leader, you have to experience a certain level of tension too. You might call that stress. While stress gets a bad rap, it’s actually the secret to getting stronger. It’s the way you deal with stress that backfires on you.

When you are experiencing the right amount of stress it naturally grows your leadership muscles.

Too little stress and you stagnate.

Too much stress and you’re overwhelmed or even worse, you experience health issues, trouble sleeping, poor decision-making ability, and more which ends up weakening you as a leader.

You have to be honest with yourself about the level of tension or stress that is the sweet spot for you.

5. Regularly Reflect

The type of workouts you engage in varies depending on what your health and fitness goals are.

If your aim is maintaining your overall health, your workouts might consist of walking or swimming five days a week for 30 minutes and two days of full-body resistance training.

If your goal is building muscle, you might flip that and invest more time in strength training, isolating the specific muscles that need attention, and less time on cardio.

Maybe your goal is fat loss. In that case, it’s important for you to engage in consistent cardio and strength training that allows you to burn more calories than you take in.

No matter what your goals are physically, it’s important to periodically check in to see if you are accomplishing your goals and then make adjustments that will improve your chances of achieving them.

It’s very much the same when it comes to your goals as a leader. You are poised to see the big picture – the direction you are heading and where you want to end up. And you are responsible for getting there! Along the way, it’s essential that you step back and evaluate the progress so that you are able to make adjustments and keep everyone moving forward towards the goal!

Another beautiful perk to reflecting is that it provides the space you need to sort through the issues and problems that are sure to pop up!

Regularly reflecting is an ongoing process!

If you are a leader who is perpetually in motion or frantically trying to put out fires, that’s a sign that you probably aren’t taking the time to reflect and be proactive.

Having a regular rhythm of stepping back and evaluating what’s working, what’s not working, and identifying what needs to change is a powerful practice! As you take time to pause and reflect you may also want to contemplate…

• • • Which of your leadership muscles need more exercise?
    • Where do you need to improve your form?
    • How you can work less – with laser focus?
    • What can you delegate?
    • How much tension or stress are you currently experiencing as a leader? Is it time to add a bit more tension? Back off the tension? Or is the tension plenty challenging right where it is?
    • What will you do to strengthen your leadership muscles – a specific action step?

6. Find Your Strength In Him

Leaders often feel compelled to appear strong and yet deep down they feel anything but. What if you were authentic: real and aware of your weaknesses? What if that’s what truly requires strength?

It’s comforting to me that even Paul, someone who courageously led the way spreading the gospel, recognized his weakness.

…For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10b (NLT)

Paul knew full well that He needed God’s power, divine guidance, and wisdom.

The time spent daily in His presence bolsters your ability to lead in the most significant way! In the end, prioritizing that time together to listen and learn from Him saves you time and frustration too!

To lead others well, you have to lead yourself well. It all starts with you and trickles down from there.

Don’t let a lack of “strength work” limit you as a leader.

How are you strengthening your leadership muscles?

© Can Stock Photo / peshkov