You are more powerful than you think

"Don’t buy into the assumed constraint that position power is the only power that works."

Believing you have the power to lead yourself is the first step to taking responsibility. The authors do a great job of illustrating multiple varieties of power that a person has at his/her disposal. I found this very liberating and at the heart of self leadership.

As the quote above suggests, position power is the most obvious kind of power. “The Boss” has position power. But, that is not the only kind. They also list:

• Task power, the ability to do something other people can’t.
• Personal power, the ability to assure people and gain their confidence.
• Knowledge power, being the person who knows things that others don’t.
• Relationship power, it’s not what you know, but who you know.

Regardless of position, tenure or experience, each person has at least one of those kinds of power they can activate to lead themselves and to get their work done. If you listen to most people’s excuses, they refuse responsibility because they fail to acknowledge they have power.

My daughters were 11 and 14 when they returned from summer camp determined to “feed the homeless.” They couldn’t drive. They had no money. They had no street-smarts. But they had determination. They asked for my help. They called rescue missions. We contrived a way to get drivers to carry meals in their car to hand out to panhandlers on street corners. Their story was included in a book entitled, Do Hard Things, and people from all over the country wanted to be part of the action. Literally thousands of meals have been given to homeless men and women because two young girls recognized they had more power than they knew.

Challenge assumed restraints

"Circus trainers say they can put a piece of string around that six-ton elephant’s leg and he won’t break away."

The book retells the well-worn story about training a circus elephant with a cable when it is small and later the giant full-grown elephant will remain tethered by a small string because the elephant thinks it is still cabled. I don’t know if it is true or fiction, but it doesn’t really matter. We can readily see that they only reason such a powerful animal would refuse to move is its belief that it can’t.

Most of the failure of self leadership is the belief that we can’t. We put restraints on ourselves. If you think of a frustrating situation and complete the sentence, “I can’t because…”, you will find your constraints. If you take a close look at those constraints, some are real, and will have to be overcome by real means. Many of them are assumed restraints. I assume I can’t, so I don’t try. Much of self leadership is deciding to challenge those assumptions.

The simplest way to challenge assumed restraints is to ask for help. Asking for help is like magic, the authors claim. Everyone loves to feel useful and important. If you ask for help, you will be surprised at what you will receive.

You are responsible for getting what you need

"When goals work out, it is usually because you instinctively take the initiative to be a self leader and get what you need to succeed."

The importance of self leadership is clearly set forth in the book. The authors deviate a little from the simplicity of their call to self leadership when they add “situational leadership” into the mix. It feels a little off-topic, yet the addition does add substance.

You don’t always need the same thing, depending on your competence and commitment. If you have low competence, you clearly need more direction than you do if you are highly competent. But, you could be highly competent and still need support to help you complete a project.

The One Minute Manager franchise has other situational leadership books. The concept is, though, most helpful when you apply it to yourself. If you take responsibility for your own performance, you know – really know – how competent you are or how committed you are. So you can get the help you need. You’ll never be as sure of another person’s situation quite as well as your own.