Dangerous Leader: Time for leadership spring-cleaning

It’s spring. And in the midst of Iowa’s volatile, inconsistently warm then freezing spring weather, the idea of spring-cleaning can’t be ignored. As you wash those windows and clean out flower beds, consider a leadership spring-cleaning as well.

There are three big actions I like to take when doing a leadership spring-cleaning. They are simple, but I cannot promise easy. They include revising your ideal future, letting go of anything that limits you, and setting up the next action for progress.

Just as we can imagine our future flower beds, we can also imagine the kind of leader we want to be.

While there are an abundance of books, podcasts, videos and opinions on the ideal leader. That doesn’t mean someone else’s idea is good for you. Dangerous Leaders — we determine our own.

Things you can do

Let’s look at three actions to help you.

Action 1: Ideate

Take 10 minutes and brainstorm what leading as an ideal leader feels like to you.

With your Ideal leader icon set firmly in your mind, compare it to your current leader behaviors, commitments and investments. Whatever supports the ideal leader you see within you, nourish it. Spend time with it, invest in it, and allow it to grow. Let the rest fade away.

Action 2: Prioritize

identify what is important to your picture of ideal leadership.

Use these priorities to determine where you say yes or no to opportunities as they arise. Use them to influence the way you treat others from this point forward. Finally, share them with others to build trust and open communication.

Finally, now that your present leadership ideal is taking shape, where do you want to evolve and grow? Dangerous leaders are dynamic, and stagnation is the enemy. We can’t help it, our curiosity demands we seek the “more” we know is out there.

Action 3: Evolve

Evolution is a natural response to our environments. And as our actions and leadership shifts occur, our environment will respond in kind. Observe and act upon the actions most in alignment with the ideal you are continuing to grow. Or, more succinctly, do the next right thing for your leadership.

Staying in harmony

These are simple actions for leaders. When used routinely, the dangerous leader will stay in harmony with their toughest environments.

Dangerous Leaders do this by recognizing where their best efforts are useful and seeking to collaborate in growth with their environments. Dangerous leaders do not accept that where we are, is where we will always be.

I challenge you to spring-clean your leadership and refuse to settle for mediocrity.

Instead, conceive your ideal leadership self, prioritize your leadership actions to support the ideal, and then allow the evolution inspired by your new focus.

This is the work of a Dangerous Leader. Lead Dangerously, Be You.

Jennifer Smith is a Cedar Rapids-based personal and executive coach, host of The Dangerous Leader Podcast, and unapologetic optimist; jennifer@dangerousleader.com; @drjennsmith