Unleash The Leader In You; Here Is What You Have Been Missing Out On

Most people have vast leadership potential in them. But how many actually make an effort to unlock their true potential? Success in leadership is not a one-size-fits-all formula. In fact, it’s the opposite. Treat others how they want to be treated, not how you want to be treated. Be selfless, not selfish. This mindset is something we all need to develop. It’s also something that can be trained. But something that has to be re-wired, as your brain is a survival machine, and automatically puts you first over and above those you serve. But leadership is about putting people first, the people you serve, and influence. This can be learned. 

Alex Draper has helped develop and unlock the leadership potential in over 25,000 people with DX’s leadership programs worldwide. His secret has always been leading with a growth mindset. He leads an ever-growing global team and at home with two children and people he mentors and coaches. He is far from perfect but seeks to get better every day. Alex is also an author. He is inching closer to finishing his first book, The CARE Equation. This book speaks about unleashing leadership in all of us since we are all leaders. 

Alex Draper At A Glance

Alex Draper is the CEO OF DX Learning Solutions, a partner in progressive leadership training that taps into the powerful combination of behavioral psychology and experimental learning to expose and eliminate bad leadership and prepare leaders to put people first. 

Alex’s company designs deliver and license its products to enhance its clients’ leadership development initiatives. For smaller organizations, DX helps build, shift and sustain human-centric cultures. 

The Gap

Many leaders don’t give the clarity, autonomy, relationships, and equityⓇ, that their team members crave, putting the brains of those they serve in protection mode. Starve someone of what they need to survive, and they will go into protection mode. Additionally, leaders do not do what they say, continually breaking the psychological contract between them and their team. They say one thing and do another, stressing out the brains of those they serve. 

Therefore, how can one unleash their leadership potential?

It starts with Self-Awareness

Achieving self-awareness is the first step in unleashing the great leader in you. Being more observant of yourself is essential as it will help you fix problems you don’t know to exist. You need to slow down and spend time asking yourself, “how could I have been better today”. You need to ask those you serve the same question. They will tell you things you had no idea you needed to fix. Self-awareness will equip you with better leadership skills, help you manage your emotions, and improve your relationships. It will also make you more creative, communicate better by providing more clarity, make better decisions and give more autonomy, be more empathetic and build better relationships, which will eventually lead to a feeling of equity in those you work with.s. But self-awareness is not self-created. It comes from the perspectives of those you serve. Are you asking? Are they telling you the truth? And are you listening?

Growth Mindset

A growth mindset is an essential ingredient in making you a great leader. A leader with a growth mindset will see opportunities for themselves and their team even during times of crisis. For instance, when the coronavirus pandemic was biting, Alex never let go of any of his employees. The team he entered with, is the team he exited with. Even after losing every cent of the revenue and not invoicing anything for over 3 months, he found a way to keep them together. Instead, he used that time to change the entire business for the better. A growth mindset will help you to accelerate the teams’ growth and overcome any business challenge. It’s the belief that we can do anything if we believe and put the effort in. It’s that notion, of we are not there…..yet. 

A growth mindset will keep your ego in check. Give you perspective. Give you the gift of seeing things with a mindset of anything is possible. Those mistakes are merely opportunities to learn. You can look at the future with a smile, have a heart for people, and be honest and transparent. Alex holds himself accountable. His team holds him accountable as well as holds each other accountable for living and breathing the growth mindset. He has taught everyone to take ownership, and everyone brings their accountability. 

Be Solution Oriented

Having the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency is another thing that can unleash the leadership potential in you. Leaders don’t just solve problems; they aid in finding the source of a challenge and provide the right and better way of doing it. Even better, they empower their teams to lead and fix things themselves. That is the ultimate leader. Someone who does not create an army of followers, but creates an army of leaders who can think for themselves and solve their problems without them. EQ, not IQ. That is what DX was founded on. Arming leaders with the EQ is needed to lead in the modern workplace. Today, he disrupts the leadership training industry with science-based methodologies that drive leadership self-awareness, emotional intelligence, inclusivity that led to increased psychological safety that solved organizational challenges.

Conclusion

Therefore, to unleash your potential, strengthen your self-awareness, have a growth mindset, and create an army of leaders, not followers.

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