How To Unlock Your Power Of Leadership Imagination

0 0 4 minutes read

📝 usncan Note: How To Unlock Your Power Of Leadership Imagination

Disclaimer: This content has been prepared based on currently trending topics to increase your awareness.

It was a Friday morning. And, I had just returned home the night before after giving a keynote speech at a major conference.

Yup. I was wiped out.

Honestly, I can’t say I was excited to wake up that morning. But, I felt obligated. Why? One of my daughter’s teachers had asked me in prior weeks to come talk to my daughter’s class for career-week. The 3rd Grade teacher wanted me to talk about being a writer.

…gulp…

Hold on. Don’t make any assumptions. I understand how me dreading this talk makes me look like a jerk. I get it. But, let me give some context.

Obviously, I wanted to show up to my daughter’s classroom and make her proud. And, of course, I love nothing more than inspiring people (of any age) to tell their story—to write, to speak, and to make noise in this world.

So, why did I dread it?

I grabbed a stack books I had authored and ghosted from my bookshelf. People (of any age) like to see that a physical product had been produced. But, these were 3rd grade students. Would they be impressed by a book I Co-Authored about heart disease? Would they be impressed by books about leadership, employee recognition, business strategy, service, or marketing? No.

I just came home from speaking on a massive stage to executives. They loved my insights, my corporate stories, my corny jokes, my data, and my prescriptions. But, if I show up with serious business books, these 3rd Graders were going to think that writing is the most boring job ever.

Vitamins vs. Painkillers?

Are you leading with vitamins or painkillers?

How does any of this story benefit you? Great question.

Here’s the truth. Parenting and Leadership are very similar. Why?

Okay, I’m not going to dive into some huge dialogue about parenting. But, I WILL dive into a conversation about truly understanding your audience—your children, your coworkers, your customers, and your employees. Let’s just talk about people.

Vitamins are things you consume to improve your life. Painkillers are things you consume to return to normal—to alleviate pain.

What’s the connection?

When my kids were young, I quickly realized that they rejected advice from their Dad (me). If I told them things like, “You shouldn’t respond that way,” they’d feel blame. If I told them, “That’s not the right attitude,” they’d feel offended. So, I created a different approach. Instead of correcting them, I would write stories—creating characters dealing with similar emotions. But, in order to keep their interest, I would make these stories absolutely ridiculous. Cows would lay eggs. Ducks would eat nuts. And, common colds would become green, slimy and fanged, monsters of terror.

When I placed the blame on other fictional characters, my kids could have conversations about behavior, reactions, and dispassionate logic.

I took one of the stories I wrote to career day. I read it to the class. And, then I asked the students to draw pictures of my character’s imagination.

What’s the Leadership connection?

Listen, I had no clue what I was doing. But, I knew if I wanted to capture attention, I had to inspire imagination. Yes, I could have inspired the positive imagination. I could have told the classroom to imagine all the great things they could become in life (Vitamins). Or, I could inspire them to imagine the stickiest, gooiest, most rancid thing they could comprehend (Painkillers).

My little presentation was so well liked that I ended up being asked to give it at numerous elementary classrooms that year. The kids loved it. However, I think the teachers loved it more. Why? The concepts behind my stories, while written for children, were serious topics that I’ve written about in countless business, leadership, and motivational books, articles, white papers, etc.

How do you unlock your leadership imagination?

Tell sincere stories. Sure, I can tell you how I wrote a book a book about how my children inspired an adult, advice book. That’s sincere. BUT, I could also tell you that one of the most audience-impactful stories I ever wrote was focused on the psychology of selfies.
Loosen the structure. I’m actually known and recognized as a business writer. I’ve been doing it a long time. BUT, it’s strange how the more I resist business jargon, the more attention I attract. Be real. Be you. There’s legitimately no rules. You don’t have to sound like anyone except you. And, your voice, is the voice that will be celebrated.
Understand your audience. Alright, I’m a marketing guy. But, in an age of social media, aren’t we all? I always look at my, or my client’s, audience first. Sure, maybe I want to rage about a certain topic. Maybe I disagree with something. Maybe I agree with something. BUT, before I write, post, or create a video about anything, I consider my audience. What do they want?
Understand your impact. I literally just received comments on an article I wrote more than 8 years ago. In fact, it was tonight. I’ll be honest. I had zero recollection of writing the article. What’s my point? We live in a social-media world. We live in a world where everything we do online is creating a response…now, or later. We have no idea when or where our impact will either positively or negatively influence someone.
Understand they’re human. The title of this post is revealing. I did that on purpose. Sure, many of you can see that’s just simple twist of language. Others might honestly feel the words on daily basis. Some might need painkillers. And, some might seek vitamins. As leaders, it’s our jobs to understand people enough to know what they seek. How do you know? It’s your job to ask.