Spirituality

3 Key Leadership Mistakes Government Employees Make That Leave Them Burned Out and Frustrated.

Mistake 1. Thinking that leadership is something you learn to do.

Leadership is not something you “do,” it is something you “be.” In other words, leadership is not a series of required actions you take, rather it is the essence of who you are, the impact you have on those around you. You don’t “learn” leadership. You grow into it. You grow into effective, positive leadership by deliberately and consciously choosing to develop the natural talents, gifts and abilities that you bring to the world. Whether at work or elsewhere, the good news and bad news is that each of us is a leader whether we want to be or not. The definition of leadership is “influencing those around you.” Whether intentional or not, each of us influences others every day in every moment just by being around them. Whether we choose to use our role as leaders positively or negatively, effectively or ineffectively, is a choice. That choice is the definition of Conscious Leadership.

Mistake 2. Thinking that work and personal lives should be completely independent of one another. “Check your personal life in the parking lot.”

Here’s the bad news: There is no such thing as work/life balance. Work is part of our lives and life is part of our work. We can’t cut ourselves in half and put part in one place and part in another…though a lot of us have tried that. In order for us to meet today’s challenges for the long haul, we need each person to fully integrate their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects. We need the whole person to show up on purpose each day whether they are showing up at work, at home, at school, or somewhere else. Conscious Leadership focuses on authenticity and the higher purpose of the organization and each individual in it. At work the conscious leader recognizes the benefit of the employee who is in a job because they truly see that job as the ideal place for them to offer their best talents and gifts as opposed to the employee who goes through the motions for 8 hours a day just so they can leave the office and attempt to get their real fulfillment/joy/fun (choose the word that works best for you) elsewhere. At home the conscious leader recognizes that the parent who provides their service in a job they love and models that gift of service and abundance for their child is a far better parent than the one who is stressed out, burned out and exhausted just from getting through the day.

Mistake 3. Thinking that this Conscious Leadership stuff sounds nice and might work in the corporate world but would never work in government.

In the world of the government employee, the idea of aligning oneself with work that taps into the employee’s highest and best gifts and that feeds the greatest sense of fulfillment has never been more important. As benefits continue to decrease, promotions come farther apart, and even the job security previously associated with government service comes into question, embracing Conscious Leadership and encouraging each employee to truly BE their own authentic, unique, natural leader is the only way that our organizations are going to have the creative, innovative, unlimited resources required to meet the challenges ahead of them. NOTE: THIS IS NOT YOUR ORGANIZATION’S JOB! It’s yours. The key here is that Conscious Leadership is NOT something that is “built” into the organization by regulation or mandate. The only way to create and grow Conscious Leadership within your organization is to is to create and grow it within yourself. When you choose to become a conscious leader you will recognize your greatest ability to impact the future of your organization, get the stress out of your life, and put the fun back in your work.

For additional tips on being a conscious leader, visit www.consciousleadershipblueprint.com or check us out on Facebook at Conscious Leadership Blueprint. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you. What’s the biggest challenge you face in becoming a conscious leader?

“I don’t want your sacrifice, I need your gift.” Signed, A Grateful Nation

By Martha Wilson

This article was originally published in July 2012.

Those who come to federal service are a special breed. We come out of a call to service, a desire to give back, an intent to leave the world a better place than we found it. As we come on board with our respective organizations we expect, and are even eager, to make certain sacrifices in the service of our agency and our country. Most of our organizations have the word sacrifice somewhere in the either our Vision, Mission or Values statements.

I believe that sacrifice is the one thing that we do NOT need, or even want, from our federal employees. Before you label me a heretic, a traitor, or someone looking collect more for less, hear me out. Sacrifice means giving of oneself from a place of scarcity or lack. Whether that giving is in terms of money, time, energy, or physical well-being, it assumes a giving, willingly or otherwise, from a source that has finite boundaries. Because of those finite boundaries, at some point there will be nothing left to give. The cup is empty. We simply cannot pour out any more. When that cup is empty, we are left tired, bored, frustrated, depressed, and wondering, “why did I sacrifice so much in the first place? Did everything I gave up really even matter?”

So what if instead of asking federal employees to sacrifice, we instead asked them to give? What’s the difference? The difference is that a gift comes from a place of abundance, even excess. Thankfully, each of us is truly unique. We have different talents, skills, abilities, and loves that come together to create who we are as people and as employees. As we cultivate each of those things within ourselves beginning with the things that matter most to us, we continually fill our cup. Our service is no longer a “pouring out” of finite resources but rather a “spilling over” of unlimited abundance doing what we love in the service of those who love what we do.

While there are steps that organizations can take to facilitate the process (a different topic for a different day), the creation of an engaged, on purpose, abundant work force, is not up to the organization. It is up to us as individuals to create that reality for ourselves. We are the individuals who protect our borders, who create the face of our nation abroad, who insure that our veterans, our elderly, and our under-privileged are cared for, who insure that our nation’s fiscal resources are managed responsibly, who preserve our natural lands, and who perform countless other roles creating a nation that, while not perfect, we believe is the best deal going. When we recognize the enormity of our endeavor, we realize that it is impossible for us to sacrifice enough to face the challenges ahead of us. The only way that we can sustain our missions for the long haul is to give, of our time, energy, talent, and love, from our individual overflow.

So what does it mean to give from our individual overflow? The answer might sound counterintuitive…or worse self-serving. It means being absolutely clear on what matters most to you, what makes your heart sing, and consistently choosing in favor of that. As you begin to focus on those things that you are good at, that bring you joy, that make you smile, you will find yourself naturally led to the place where your specific gifts are of highest service. Your gifts will spill over on to the work you do, the people you work with, and the people who mean the most to you both personally and professionally. There will be no limit to your time, your energy, your creativity, or your possibilities because you are giving from abundance. Contrary to popular belief, you not only deserve to love your work, you have a responsibility to.

So as you drive to work this morning, check in with yourself. Are you excited and looking forward to getting to work? If not, imagine just for a minute what it might feel like if you were. What would be different for you? What would be different for those around you? Then make a choice.

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If your “government service” is starting to feel more like “government servitude,” Leadership Architect Martha Austin will show you innovative yet simple shifts to transform the bureaucracy you hate into the mission you love so you can make more money, have more fun, and contribute more to the world. Get more FREE tips at www.freegiftfrommartha.com.

3 Key Elements to BE the Change

By Martha Wilson

Mahatma Ghandi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” We’ve all heard that a thousand times. Yet have you ever stopped to consider the implications of truly BEING the change? For the Conscious Leader, BEING the change is a tall order, and it requires 3 key elements that may not be immediately obvious. These elements, while difficult for some to master, are the building blocks for the Conscious Leader.

Key Element 1: The Conscious Leader is Open to Change. As leaders we often say that our organization needs to change this or that. So we gather data that demonstrates to the organization how its current way of being is ineffective and how being different would “improve” it. We begin a campaign to make the organization be open to change whether it wants to or not.

The Conscious Leader realizes that in order for the organization to be open to change, the leader himself must be open to change…open to seeing things differently. Interestingly, organizations are composed of …well…individual humans. In order for the organization to change, the individual humans inside the organization must be open to change. The individual humans must be open to evolution and growth not only within the construct of the organization but throughout the larger realm of their lives. As the Conscious Leader develops his own personal openness to change and growth, the organization around him becomes open to change and growth.

Key Element 2: The Conscious Leader does not waste energy DOING the change. Many organizations spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on employee engagement surveys. The results come back indicating that engagement is lower than desired, and employees complain about feedback, assignment and promotion processes, and evaluation systems. So organizations institute classes on feedback and career development, mandate review processes, and track the number of conversations that supervisors have with employees. A year later they do another survey and discover that the results have not changed. What happened? The members of the organization wasted time, energy and money DOING the change, not BEING it.

The Conscious Leader recognizes that BEING must come BEFORE DOING. The difference is very subtle and very powerful. Providing feedback and career development conversations will not create an organization with highly engaged employees. DOING the change. Rather an organization with highly engaged employees will automatically provide helpful feedback and develop powerful career development processes that work for everyone. The Conscious Leader knows that the only way to create an organization composed of highly engaged employees is to become one himself…BEFORE asking or expecting it of others. BEING the change.

Key Element 3: The Conscious Leader does not WAIT ON change. This may be the most difficult element of all. It can be easy to say, “This job will get better when I get a [newsupervisor/budget/office/the regs change/my husband’s job lets us move]. When [that thing] happens, I will have a job I love. Until then I’ll tolerate things as they are.” News Flash: When you tolerate a job that does not make your heart sing, you cannot offer your highest and best self. Yes, you may work very hard, and you will be doing the best that you can…in that situation. But it will NOT be the best that you are truly capable of. With each day that goes by, you will sell a larger piece of your soul for the sake of a paycheck. In some cultures, they call that prostitution.

The Conscious Leader does not wait for things to change around her. She acknowledges that the change she seeks is already inside her and makes choices, large and small, in support of the change. She acts AS IF the change she wanted has already happened…AS IF she already has a boss she loves (and interacts with the current one in that manner); AS IF she already has the new office (and maintains the old one accordingly). As she consistently chooses in favor of those things that are most aligned with the world she wants to see, she BECOMES the change.

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The Lesson of the Frozen Shoulder: Nature’s Navigation System at Work

By Martha Wilson

Many of you have heard me talk about Nature’s Navigation System that will keep us on track to be the positive, effective, impactful leaders that we are each designed to be. The system itself is really quite simple, yet many of us don’t use it or don’t use it well. Why? Because we are human and it is easy for us to ignore, drown out or cover up the “alert tone” when it goes off. In the Conscious Leadership Blueprint Virtual Bootcamp™ we spend an entire module on Nature’s Guidance System. For now, I just want to give you three quick tips you can use right away.

Tip One: NOTICE: Does something feel just a little off? In the case of my shoulder, I had felt it pop and grind inexplicably for more than 6 months. The same thing happens in other areas of our lives. You may begin to dread going to work or snap at your kids more frequently or realize that you aren’t getting the results you used to get or expected from your team. These are all ALERT TONES from your navigation system. Pay attention to them!

Tip Two: CHECK YOUR ALIGNMENT: When the ALERT TONE goes off, it is time to stop what you are doing and check your alignment. Truly identify what is the source of the alert. So often, like I did with my shoulder, we choose to ignore the warning signs. We think that if we just ignore the situation perhaps it will work itself out. As the alert tone continues to sound, and become progressively more annoying, some of us will try to push through it. Others of us will do more of what we have always done in the past. When we choose to ignore the alert tones, the misalignment does not go away. It’s impact becomes more severe.

Tip Three: SEEK ASSISTANCE FROM A PROFESSIONAL: Even though I understood what was wrong with my shoulder, it was physically impossible for me to treat it myself. Only with the assistance of a trained physical therapist was it possible for me to achieve the deep stretching required to free my shoulder. The same is true of misalignments in other areas of life. If it were possible for us to correct our misalignment alone, we would have done that already. For some, even figuring out where the misalignment is can be a challenge. Regardless, the longer you continue doing things that are not aligned with your gifts, the louder the alert tone becomes and the more difficult the misalignment is to fix. As one client said to me last week, “Martha, I have a stack of books as high as my waist. Why can’t I figure this out?” It’s the same reason that I can’t stretch my shoulder sufficiently without the physical therapist, we are all restricted by our previous experiences. It takes someone else to stretch us past what we can do for ourselves in order to reach our full potential and allow our natural leadership abilities to emerge.

To explore if and how you could use a good stretch, I invite you to schedule a complimentary Leadership Design Consultation with me by clicking this link and completing the application.

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