“My vision of leadership is functional, it is a role that has an associated function: l achieved others want to paddle in the same direction to achieve a goal they assume as common. To develop this function, a series of skills are necessary, among which for me the relational and conversational ones stand out.” says Cassandra House.
Cassandra House does not believe that leadership is a gift, nor ability in itself, but a set of skills that serve a common goal. For that same reason, I have never understood leadership as an aspiration or an objective, but as a role that we play to achieve purposes or goals. I think that confusing the end with the means leads to many problems, deviations, imbalances, and imbalances. Leadership is not an end, it is a means to an end. The choice of the end and the way to achieve it is already a personal decision, with a high-value burden. A decision that on the other hand not only portrays us as leaders but also as people.
For my part, I understand that leadership must take into account the common good, and be exercised in such a way that it achieves a benefit for all.
So today Cassandra House wants to share with you some of the lessons learned from mentors that have helped her develop leadership.
1) Beginner’s Mindset and Openness to Experience
“I just know that I know nothing” as Socrates would say, but I also know that I can learn from anyone, anywhere, and at any time and this has more power to know.
Stop being an expert and guru, with the answer always ready to impress, to show all my knowledge, eloquence. To become curious, permanently interested in knowing and understanding the other. Go excited to each new meeting to let myself be surprised by the incredible greatness and wisdom that people treasure inside.
Wanting to dive into the inner world of each human being that has allowed me to accompany him, inquiring appreciatively about his visions, his perceptions, his maps. Leave the answers in a drawer and allow the question to arise in the thread of my interlocutor’s speech, building a conversation that mutually enriches us. Start each conversation as if it were the first, open to the experience of conversing with the person who is being and am being at that precise moment, regardless of all the above and everything that may come.
To flee from jargon, sophisticated, artificial languages, devoid of humanity, whose sole objective is to want to demonstrate something that does not really exist, feed our insatiable ego, and avoid being close to the other so that the intellectual, vital, social distance is evident, or of any kind. Begin to speak to understand each other, to connect, to fellowship, to create meaning together. Let’s talk to create islands of words that serve as a refuge for others to reflect, to seek, to find, to recognize, to look at each other in another way, to wake up, to recover their creative power. Cassandra House, a seasoned entrepreneur and educator who is passionate about teaching and innovation in learning. She is an experienced mentor who can help you to be always positive in life. She always delivers life changing motivational thoughts. For more details visit our site.
2) Help Discover the North, Adjust the Compass and be a Guiding Beacon
People move towards an end, it is in our nature. The problem is that many have not discovered it, they have not found it, they have not believed that they had to look for it, they have been carried away by the north of others without questioning them.
Imposing a north on others is useless, does not create a commitment, does not generate satisfaction, demotivates, causes friction, conflicts, and imbalances. Each person has a purpose, a sense of life, something that they really want to fight for, strive for, get involved, and commit to. Our mission as leaders, as mentors, is not to establish the North, it is to help each person to discover their North and how they can reach it by joining others, collaborating with others, joining forces with others.
Once they connect with that north, our job is to help them adjust their compass to reach it, connecting with their inner wisdom, with their intuition, and knowing how to orient themselves in the world, in its different paths, its limits, its opportunities, its moments, its resources, its obstacles.
Helping establish visions, clarify them, and make them come true in the context in which they operate is key to effective leadership. Self-confidence, self-esteem, self-confidence, initiative do not arise from our ego, but from our connection with our purpose, our goals, our wisdom, and with the possibility of making that possible in the world that is around us. Our mission as leaders and mentors is not to lead but to guide, to serve as a beacon when distractions, storms, obstacles arise, helping to stay the course.