I have had the pleasure to meet some CEOs in my lifetime who have reached this esteemed level of reflective leadership. A key aspect here is the thought of leaving a legacy behind.
 
Over the years as I have read about corporate greed, where leaders have left padded with money for self and left their organizations in worse conditions, it is inspiring to see leaders who actually do the opposite.
 
One CEO I met was focused on making his people happy. He said as he hired me that he wanted to see his people happy, for when they are happy, they come to work happy.
 
I was enamored of this man. I felt that he truly had his heart in the right place. True to his intentions, the organization went from strength to strength, as employees began to realise their identity.
 
They knew who they were and moved from there to higher performance. Their style of leadership became known to them and leaders were born at all levels. They were inspired to think about the impact they would make as leaders.
 
Movinf forward they were coached and mentored by senior leaders while coaching and mentoring their juniors. All through the organization, I felt the legacy forming. This CEO had a clear vision and had done a great job in mobilizing the people who worked for him.  
 
Love and respect for everyone in the organization was established as each employee did what they did with the highest level of contributing back to the organization that gave them so much.
 
This CEO had passed his wisdom on. The organization had installed a continuous learning culture and giving back became a part of the journey. This is truly reflective leadership in operation.
 
I was a part of this incredible journey.  It felt truly inspiring. This profound journey couldn’t have happened without the NLP tools I shared. This framework certainly made it easy on employees to navigate through their personal and work lives.
 

By the time I reached this level of leadership I was a change consultant. Having NLP tools at hand was a big advantage. I knew how to foster a culture of innovation in organisations.

I had reached a level of helping people connect with their identity, working towards their passion. Purpose was the ultimate motivator. Most people at this stage wanted to leave a legacy behind. It was my job to help them find their way.

I began by providing people with the tools to dream. Like Walt Disney who created Disneyland from nothing, I continued to facilitate senior teams deeper into their inner most selves.

This was a wonderful way to spark the a-ha moments.

Often once people reached this level, they understood how to anticipate and shape future trends. They saw opportunities and weaknesses. This spurred them towards their longer term goals.

Establishing a mentoring infrastructure within the organisation helped create mentors at all levels. This long term sustainability became the anchor for organisations to lean on as profitability improved.

​Stability of people individually and people as teams, added value to the leadership model where emerging leaders were spotted and developed within. The key to success when people and long term goals were aligned.
 

As leadership challenges increase, so do leaders need to keep themselves current. Looking back on my journey as a leader, being the adventurer that I am, I yearned for new horizons.
 
What else was there to learn? Plenty! Leading teams was a new skill I had not been exposed to. My KPI’s were different. I had to learn how to engage my team to the point of making them high performers.
 
As a Neuro Linguistic Programming Trainer I had tools in the palm of my hand. Setting the direction was fundamental to pulling the team to a common starting point.
 
With frequent weekly meet ups it was fascinating to see how the team were mobilizing towards the strategic direction set which augured well for operational alignment.  
 
Every team member was different. Some needed mentoring of how to do the job. Others felt they preferred to be coached towards their goals. This team development morphed from “very difficult” to “more do-able”
 
Ultimately people wanted to be helped along the way to the point where they reached conscious competence. As they moved from conscious to unconscious competence, so did their level of motivation.
 
It was then that I could delegate and set them free. Like an eagle soaring, it was fulfilling for me to experience their performance improvement. This is how I saw myself as a successful leader.
 
When my people were able to traverse new boundaries and thrive. I wasn’t needed anymore. It was time to move to the next level of leadership. 

​The big jump into senior leadership doesn’t have to be that way. If organisations nurtured their people from one level to the next, new senior leaders would be ready to take the bull by the horns. 

By this time, a leader must have already shown some sense of being a visionary, someone able to traverse new boundaries into the unknown. Creating a Vision is one thing, engaging teams to follow, is another. 

Language and communication sit at the crux of this level of leadership. To be able to pull all stakeholders together towards a common goal takes a charismatic leader.

In the Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) toolbox I learnt the language of influence, used frequently by the most enchanting orators. Shocked at the simple structure of this language model, I realized the importance of structure on my leadership journey to this level. 

Again, things were made so easy when I knew how to use language strategically. In the past, I thought great leaders were born. This was the turning point of my life. Great leaders could be made too. 

My big picture mind that sprung from the Myers Briggs (MBTI) personality profile helped in carving out organizational strategy. While I had teams to help execute, I found it easy to put building blocks together for the intended outcome.

Senior leaders must love change as landscapes ahead are ever-changing! Adaptability and flexibility, two traits deemed crucial from this point on, to hit the ground running moving into the abyss ahead.

That adventurer mindset to a large extent is needed for senior leaders today. With this goes a high level of energy and similar teams to support. These are some reasons why a change leader will attract a similar style team. 

As the team wins with its senior leadership, so does excitement and enthusiasm that creates a sense of belonging, Maslow’s third level of needs that individuals aspire to. 

At the end of the day, it is the senior leader that attracts everything from their teams to projects and clients. Influence must exude out of a leader at this level that pairs with confidence that individuals are able to see and feel.

Ultimately, senior leaders are the glue that hold parts together. They know how to re-invent if need be and charge forward. 

Now comes the time to begin putting theory into practice. Given a chance to make mistakes and take feedback to do better the next time, this type of on-the-job training is second to none.
 
Like toddlers who learn how to stand by falling a few times, so do we as adults need to gain our innate confidence to lead in the future. This confidence-building allows new leaders to make good intuitive decisions over time.
 
I know my journey to intuitive decision making came from a feeling I resonated with. As time went on this feeling became stronger and deeper. If I did not get that feeling, I would either defer my decision to a later time or reject the idea completely.
 
It was only later when I learnt Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) that I realized I was making intuitive decisions rather than logical ones that didn’t stand the course.
 
Gaining confidence in making decisions, I was then able to take responsibility and be accountable for projects. Extending to people-management also began to seem do-able where before it was something in the “too hard” basket.
 
This type of hands-on experience in learning how to be a leader was fundamental to my success. Learning the ropes of how to build and maintain rapport also became challenging until these, termed as basic skills in the NLP toolbox, were learnt.
 
In many ways I later realized that when new things ahead of me loomed difficult like a dark cloud, the important thing was to learn about the subject. As I understood more, the task seemed more do-able and my level of confidence rose.
 
It was then I realized the importance of continuous learning. Attending workshops became a must. I chose topics within leadership that I was weak in. My focus was to pad areas that had gaps so I could feel confident around the leadership subject eventually.
 
Tracing my leadership journey, I see how organisations have the potential to garner their high performers at every level towards a strong leadership path.
 
Why look outside when there are leadership gems waiting to be nurtured?