The Three Levels of Leadership - Scouller Leadership Blog » The First Quality of Leadership Presence: Personal Power

The First Quality of Leadership Presence: Personal Power

Posted on June 7, 2015 by James Scouller

In my book, The Three Levels of Leadership, I’ve written about “leadership presence”. In chapter 5, I described the seven qualities of presence, the first being Personal Power.

Personal power is control over your mind. It recognises that although we can’t always control outer events – including others’ behaviour towards us – we can always choose our response to those events. Thus, it’s power over oneself; it’s not a drive to gain power over other people. It doesn’t spring from a need to gain the status, prestige or visibility that power over others brings or an urge to impose your viewpoint through force.

The importance of personal power is this: if you can’t direct and lead yourself, you’ll find it hard to direct others because they’ll sense your lack of inner command. Thus, personal power (as opposed to the power that impressive job titles offer) is crucial to anyone wanting to be a successful leader.

Why am I writing about this now? Because I read an interesting article by Luke Johnson in today’s Sunday Times (7 June 2015). It was headlined “Don’t run a business if you can’t even run your own life.”

Johnson was arguing that every entrepreneur needs willpower. But what he was talking about were aspects of Personal Power. It’s worth reading his take on the subject because no one author’s words or style can appeal to everyone and his angle may help you understand Personal Power better. Here are selected excerpts from his article:

“… over many years in business I have come to the conclusion there is one defining attribute above all others that marks a successful entrepreneur. It is self-discipline. Possess that and all other qualities are secondary. Indeed, it would be no exaggeration to say willpower is the vital ingredient. As President Harry S Truman said: ‘In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first’.”

“The opposite of self-discipline is a life of excuses. Those who are lazy, or procrastinate, who are risk-averse, or unwilling to forfeit pleasures in the present for future gains, are highly unlikely to build a worthwhile business. I meet many would-be entrepreneurs who parade the same old justifications as to why they can’t take the plunge and start their own company. They complain they lack capital; I would argue they need to start a business that needs none, or be more imaginative in how they raise it, or get going on a shoestring and grow. Others say they cannot survive without the income from a steady job; I would respond that any important step requires sacrifice – perhaps a business can be started part-time, or perhaps their personal life will have to be more frugal.”

“Other aspiring entrepreneurs talk of how they have suffered bad luck. I worry that such an attitude betrays a belief they are powerless to influence the future, a passive willingness to let life happen to them. Those who possess willpower seize the day and actively control their destiny.”

“As you climb the greasy pole, willpower remains important even as you amass wealth and power. You must resist temptation in various forms – the inclination to become boastful, or a megalomaniac, or a bully, or complacent, or intolerant of dissent. Entrepreneurs and chief executives frequently succumb to delusions of grandeur because they lose the self-discipline that got them to the top in the first place.”

“Those who possess self-discipline reap advantages in all aspects of life: their relationships, their health, their finances, their skills.”

Well said, Mr Johnson.

 

The author is James Scouller, an executive coach. His book, The Three Levels of Leadership: How to Develop Your Leadership Presence, Knowhow and Skill, was published in May 2011. You can learn more about it at www.three-levels-of-leadership.com. If you want to see its reviews, click here: leadership book reviews. If you want to know where to buy it, click HERE. You can read more about his executive coaching services at The Scouller Partnership’s website.

Posted in Leadership / Executive Presence | Tagged James Scouller, leadership, leadership books, leadership presence, Luke Johnson, self-dicipline, the three levels of leadership, willpower | No comment