Overview: Family or small-community leadership is, in many ways, similar to intelligent corporate leadership. Like corporate leaders, family leaders set values and visions, facilitate inclusive decision-making, and sacrifice themselves on the altar of a higher cause. Positively impacting the lives of others is the supreme leadership reward in both cases.
Whether we like it or not, we are all leaders. We all hold control and leadership over our lives, and many of us provide leadership – good or bad – for our families. Leadership coaching professionals know the benefits of leadership exceed the corporate world. By developing your leadership skills, you won’t just benefit your organization; you’ll also benefit your family or closest circle, along with yourself, by becoming a better person.
The Universal Reach of Leadership
Leadership is important wherever you are in life. Wherever two people congregate, they define their relationship through trust and respect or lack thereof.
Effective leaders build cultures predicated upon trust and respect, and organizations always work better using such values as the cornerstones of their cultures.
Leadership coaching can benefit everyone. The principles of intelligent leadership can make you a better parent, teacher, or friend.
How can you be a better leader in everyday life? To find out, ask yourself what you can do to bring your family or community together.
Establishing a Set of Basic Values
Families and communities need identities as much as individuals do. Successful families live their lives with meaning, knowing the values they respect and having a vision to serve as a worthy goal. It is the family leader’s responsibility to define these values and set this vision.
Parents can and should inspire children as much as corporate leaders inspire and motivate employees.
As parents, we influence our children, willingly or not, through examples we set. Leadership in the home should be enacted with intention in this respect. They cast a compelling vision for their families and follow it by adopting and showcasing behaviors aligned with their family values and goals.
The Importance of Taking an Active Role
To get everyone to wholeheartedly follow the family or community values, a leader must commit to the common cause mentally, emotionally, and physically. Active participation is not optional. Preaching something and doing something entirely different is not an option in a small social circle.
Parents and leaders who refrain from active participation send the unequivocal message they don’t care about their loved ones or community.
Leadership Is Never About Control
Just as some leaders do, some parents confuse leadership with control. Leading a family means actively cultivating the hearts of its members. Hearts respond to one approach only: love.
Control may create a semblance of peace in a family, but it can never cultivate real peace and happiness. Establishing control is easier than showing love, but it’s a shortcut that doesn’t lead anywhere.
Including Everyone in Decision-Making
Decision-making is the bread and butter of leadership. In a small community, decisions directly impact everyone. Family leaders carry great responsibility, and part of that responsibility is recognizing they are not the only ones with the wisdom or insight to contribute to decisions.
When it’s time to make a big decision, instead of being the deciding factor, a leader should act as a facilitator of conversation, taking in the dreams, fears, and desires of all whose lives the decision will impact.
Such conversations don’t just result in optimal decisions. They create shared visions of the future that bring the community closer together.
The Power of Self-Sacrifice
Executive coaching professionals understand leadership is primarily about serving others. Servant leaders are successful because they sacrifice themselves for higher goals.
Family leadership requires a similar sacrifice. The leader of a family unit:
- Gives up leisure time and personal hobbies to be with the family
- Takes time to have deep conversations with the family members
- Invests time and energy into actively helping family members
- Will let go of personal dreams to facilitate those of other family members
Leaders’ lives are never just about themselves. Positively impacting the lives of others is one of the greatest satisfactions in life and the best reward of leadership.