During one of my coaching workshops this month, we concluded that not only is leadership a relationship, but it is in essence, a conversation.  The leader who is serious about creating standing ovation results lives to heroically impact the world and engages in the conversation of whether his or her actions are aligned with fostering that impact.  The leader who is not serious about such heroic impact will never create standing ovation performance. 

As the new father of four, I am in the conversation of whether our family is working towards the purpose of supporting each other’s growth and whether we prioritize our time together to support that growth.  The only way we can determine whether we are living in alignment is through conversation.

I provoke you to investigate whether your actions are aligned with impacting the world in which you lead.  I would bet that without conversations that challenge your alignment, your leadership will never reach the level of standing ovation.

In order to be aligned a Standing Ovation Leader demonstrates integrity in the following areas:

-Purpose

-Prioritization

-People

Purpose:

A leader who is in integrity takes the time to investigate what he or she is being called to create, how large a goal his or her leadership can span, and the impact that is possible through his or her leadership.  The leader visualizes and then declares the full impact of his or her heroic cause, and then aligns all actions towards making that impact.

Leadership is the inward provocation to say, “by the nature of who I am, what I declare, will take place.”  (Yes, that is provocative!  Read that again.)  Living in alignment is to know that identifying one’s heroic cause is the provocation itself to achieve the unimagined. 

Living in alignment means that you live faithfully towards an outcome, simply because you declare it to be so.  Standing Ovation Leaders know that by the very nature of being provoked to accomplish something unimagined, outstanding results do occur.

Prioritization:

You are probably saying, provocation and declaration, and it is so?  Yes, as long as provocation and declaration lead to prioritized actions.  A leader’s integrity is demonstrated by working according to prioritized actions. 

The Standing Ovation Leader declares and then focuses on one, maybe two, priorities at a time and knows that this focus will bring his intent forward. The more attuned the prioritization, the greater is the intent, and intensity, of the leader. 

Unfortunately so many leaders stop short of declaration.  They never declare publicly their intent.  They never bring in others to hold themselves accountable.  They never bring in the people, nor discuss the prioritized actions, that would lead to standing ovation.

People:

People are your greatest resource to scrutinize whether your prioritized actions are appropriate to achieving your intent.  People are the only resource you have to hold you to what you declare.

Leadership is the conversation of declaration.  To be a Standing Ovation Leader you are engaged in the conversation of whether your declarations are aligned to your business’ intent, and whether you prioritize your actions appropriately. 

Living according to one’s intent is incredibly challenging.  This is why declarations that lead to Standing Ovation Leadership are so rare.  The Standing Ovation Leader lives in full faith that his or her intent follows with actions and conversations to make it so.  Although living in complete integrity in actions and conversations seem difficult at the outset, once you have set on a path of living faithfully in accordance with your intent, your achieve flow in achieving standing ovation results in your business and in your life. 

Conclusion:

To achieve Standing Ovation Leadership you must state your heroic cause and declare the impact you wish to have on this world.  To achieve your intent you must act according to priorities.  To live in integrity you must check in with people to see if you are in fact living aligned, or living a lie.

If you are determined to be a Standing Ovation Leader ask yourself:

(1)    What is it I am here to do?

(2)    Is it heroic?

(3)    What am I doing towards achieving this objective?

(4)    What am I not doing?

(5)    How strong is my conviction that my intent will be achieved?

(6)    Who am I checking in with to see if my actions are aligned?

Are you having conversations surrounding these questions on a regular basis?  Do you believe your team is ready to engage in this conversation?  If you believe your team isn’t up to the task, go back and ask yourself the question, what are you here to do? 

Next month, is your capacity for relationship large enough to create Standing Ovation?