Welcome to the Daily Podcast with Jonathan Doyle! In this three-part series, we embark on a journey exploring the fundamental role of leadership in our lives. Whether you perceive yourself as a leader or not, join me as we delve into the concept of self-leadership and its transformative power. Today, we lay the groundwork by understanding the essence of leadership and how it manifests through influence and change. So, buckle up and get ready to reclaim the driver’s seat of your life with self-leadership.
Listen on:
Welcome Aboard
Hey there, my friend, Jonathan Doyle with you. Welcome to the Daily Podcast. I am pleased you are here today. I would like to welcome you to day one of a three-part series.
I’m going to take you on a journey with me over the next three days that we’re going to talk about the central role of leadership in our lives. Do not press pause. Do not immediately think of yourself; hang on, leadership that is abstract. I’m not really in a leadership role. I’ve got a big audience here, and I know that all of you are going to be in a very different place. So when we talk about leadership, I know that there’s some of you who are obviously in the leadership roles, but then some of you who are maybe not.
Challenging Preconceptions: Rethinking Leadership
The first thing I want to deal with before I try and sell you on this next three-day journey is I’m going to suggest that I want to share with you something that is really powerful and that’s part of a journey I’ve been on because, if you’re listening to me think I’m a leader or not, I don’t really do it. Hundred percent was with you for a long time. And this is me, right? I’ve done a master’s degree in leadership and management.
For many years, I was pretty much convinced that there were some people who had leadership skills, and there was a mystical thing, and the rest of us didn’t particularly have that role. I had been completely turned around on this. If you’ve been listening for the last few weeks, you know that I’ve talked a little bit about leadership before. But I really want to take you with me this time because I want to sell you on this one single idea of self-leadership.
I’m pretty sure I brought this up last week, but what I want to do these next three days is step you through a three-stage process which is going to help you become much more effective later in your own life before you worry about anything else. This is the core of what I want to share with you.
The Concept of Self-Leadership: An Overview
Self-leadership is the secret source because of all of this at all times, leading ourselves somewhere. In life, we might think that we stay the same and don’t change, but that’s not the case. We are always; I feel, sense, believe, think and articulate about this truth. We’re all going either forwards or backwards to some degree. Now that I know the complexity of daily life, it can be hard to figure that out sometimes. But if you track yourself over a long period of time, you’re either going to notice that you’re going backwards or forwards.
I’m not convinced. You might be able to say that you feel this way and that you stay the same, but I don’t think that’s what’s happening. This is why this self-leadership thing’s going to get so important because I am convinced we are always leading ourselves somewhere.
I am fighting to get this sense of self-leadership back. Last week on Instagram, I posted. If you’re not following me, please make sure you do when @jdoylespeaks one word. I talked about getting back in the cockpit, getting back in the leadership seat of our own lives.
"We are all leading ourselves somewhere. Self-leadership is the essence of personal progress."
We live in a culture that if you’re paying real attention, has become very much a victim of his culture. Is that sensitive? Anything is wrong. It can’t be our fault that there must be another reason. I think one of the things that does is it disempowers us from this incredible role that we have in our own lives. And I think God gives us this incredible free will.
I said to someone recently that you can prove this thesis about self-leadership by looking at your own children. If you’ve had children, even if you just think about it, you don’t have kids yet. It’s pretty straight-forward, right? Parents want to see their children grow up. No parent, unless they’re a complete control freak, wants their kid to stay exactly the same. Parents always want their kids to be developing and taking more responsibility, moving forward in a way.
That’s how God looks at us, right? He gives us this gift of life, gives us free will, and then wants to see us use that talent and use that gift. So the first principle I’m really sharing with you today is self-leadership.
Defining Leadership: Influence and Change
If you are, you could be listening to me. You might be a single mother at home with young children, wondering: What am I leading? You are my friend, you are leading yourself somewhere, you are leading your child, you are in a leadership role, and I’m going to prove this to you. This is the three-stage process we’re going to start talking about now.
I was speaking to her two weeks ago. Working for four days straight with four different groups of emerging leaders for a big organization. I started with the self-leadership principle. I said you were leading yourself somewhere. And then what I wanted to do was give them an insight into I guess the definition of leadership and the first thing I said to them, and I say this to you, having done a master’s degree in leadership, I can tell you that there’s no consensus about what leadership actually is right now.
There’s no textbook definition of this as leadership. You get a whole bunch of different lenses and filters, and what I’m offering you is just one. I think it’s a very good one. It’s one that I teach around the world. But I accept that there are many others; let’s just take what’s useful. So I’m going to take you through a three-stage process.
First stage is today. I want you to tune in tomorrow and the next day. To put these three pieces together, here’s the first concept: leadership by definition. Ready? It’s three words. Leadership is influence.
How do you know leadership is happening or has happened? Some kind of influence is happening. What does that mean? It means something has changed. How do you know leadership is happening? Something’s changed.
Can you not agree with me on that? If a leader comes into an organization and absolutely nothing changes, then when that leader finishes up or is replaced, no, one’s going to say, things change. It was going to say, Yeah, look, things went backwards, or it looked exactly like it did before they came. You understand leadership is influence. Leaders influence thing. Leadership is influence, influence is change. There has to be some kind of change.
Self-Leadership in Practice: Empowering Change
As we get into this self-leadership mindset, we’re looking for something to change in our lives. It could be our weight, It could be our relationships, It could be our finances, It could be our spirituality, It could be our overall health. Could be any number of things, whatever is important to you. There’s no judgment here because we’re different and we all value different things.
But your leadership of yourself. It needs to be proved or will be proved by the degree to which something is changing over time in the direction that you want. You’re not a victim; you’re not a pure victim of circumstance. Yes, other people do impact us. Yes, the environment impacts us. But I think we have been saying this for two decades. I think we have way more power and control when we actually think. And if you tune it on day three, I’m going to take you exactly to the heart of that. But I want to finish up today.
All I’m trying to do for you is; I hope this is encouraging. Do you realize that you can be a leader for yourself? And yes, you might want to become president, and yes, you might want to run the world. But the first step is self-leadership. What I’ve said to these leaders on this speaking tour is: How can leadership in any organization not ultimately be a reflection of the self-leadership of the leaders in it. Tomorrow I’m going to show you how that plays out.
Think about it, the leadership that we have in politics around the world. Look at the real issues in the world. Just pick whatever you like; pick the Middle East; pick Ukraine; pick any topic that you care about, that is, race, environment, or anything else that you care about.
Whatever leadership is or is not happening in those spaces, decisions are being made can only ever be a reflection of the character, personalities, and leadership styles and skills of the people doing the leading. Is it not fair to say that we’ve got the self-leadership part right first, then other things might change.
Reflecting on Leadership Dynamics: Implications for Society
Whether you’re listening to me today and you’re in your, you’re leading a huge corporation, or whether you are a stay at home mom, doing amazing work, raising a family. It is an incredible thing that our culture is not valued the way it should., a credibly important role.
No matter where you fit on the spectrum, I just want to sell you today on getting back in the driver’s seat of your own life, on the path of self-leadership. This is big for me at the moment. I’m just constantly thinking about myself. ‘What do I need to be doing to be responsible for where I want to go?’ And it’s not selfishness. It’s not ego, it’s not I want this for myself, it’s more like I want to grow. I want to grow because the more I grow, the more I can serve people, and the more enjoyable and full life becomes.
Conclusion: Embracing the Journey of Self-Leadership
So, my friends, that’s the point today. Let’s get back in that driver’s seat of self-leadership. Let’s understand today that leadership of yourself in any other context influences change. All right, that’s it for today.
Tomorrow I’m going to take you into what determines the kind of influence that you or other leaders are creating in their lives. We can talk about those conditions, and then on the third day, we’re going to give you the mechanism by which you actually begin to change things.
Now, in the meantime, please make sure you check out the website, jonathandoyle.co. If you want to book me to speak, consultancy projects, I will work with your teams. Please go check out the website. Youtube, you can find me on Instagram: @jdoylespeaks, one word.
God bless you my friends, this has been the Daily Podcast. Tune in tomorrow. My name’s Jonathan Doyle. We’re going to speak soon.
