Adopting a judgment-free mindset, starting off with yourself, can help lead to greater success
Article by Nancy MacKay, originally published on Forbes.com
It’s lonely at the top, but it doesn’t have to be.
During and before my time as founder and CEO of MacKay CEO Forums, believe me, I’ve seen many lonely CEOs (myself included), Executives, and Business Owners overwhelmed and burnt out with the unreasonably high expectations of others including their employees, shareholders, family, or other stakeholders. These leaders had risen to the top but now they found themselves unequipped to stay there because the strategies they had used to reach the peak were no longer up to the task.
What I saw, again and again, were capable, driven CEOs carrying enormous responsibility and quietly running on empty. Before they could inspire their teams, their organizations, or their communities, they needed to reconnect with themselves. To restore their energy. To remember their own purpose.
Because leadership doesn’t start with strategy. It starts within. And when leaders take care of themselves physically, emotionally, and mentally they create the conditions for others to rise.
But taking care of yourself, loving yourself, inspiring yourself, is also not a purely selfish venture and also so much more than a self-help cliche. You need other people around you to help you get there and you have to have a disciplined, consistent approach.
Over the course of this blog series, we will go far more into the specifics of just what it takes to reach and then maintain inspired leadership but it does start with a single step: the decision to go first. Without that, there can be no hope of embracing the various masteries that are needed across the board to get to such a leadership mindset.
What does it mean to be a Judgment Free CEO?
Let’s start with being judgment-free, not only of others, but perhaps most importantly of yourself.
The ego that sits on our shoulders is always questioning our decisions and our thoughts, engendering needless self-doubt and anxiety every day. This ego constantly gets in the way, I call it “The Judge”. Negative self-judgment naturally leads to negative judgments of others.
This Judge needs to be parked. Whenever you hear it in your head and allow the doubt to grow, instead celebrate the fact that you are recognizing it. Once you’ve done that, you can start to replace the self-doubt with some positive mantra repetition.
Simple habits, such as getting yourself into a positive frame of mind first thing in the morning and then feeling gratitude for what has transpired during any given day in the evening is also vital. You might even find you sleep better.
Such a non-judgmental approach requires strong Positive Intelligence, as defined by Shirzad Chamine. What do you do if you are in conflict with others for example? It is so easy to fall back into a judgmental frame of mind. Instead, it takes courage to remove the judgment, for example, of the person you are in conflict with, and adopt a more vulnerable approach to really understand what is going on. Only then can improved frameworks be set up to resolve the conflict and lead to possible success.
By incorporating a non-judgmental approach, you will have greater presence as a leader and your decisions will improve. One way, the judgment way, limits strategic thinking and the effectiveness of relationships while the other more enlightened approach leads to a discipline of consistently showing up under pressure and thus performing well, both for yourself and for your work colleagues.
Leadership was never meant to be a solo journey
Inspired leadership grows in relationship. It grows when we invite perspective from people who have stood where we stand, faced what we are facing, and found a way through. Those voices might come from trusted colleagues, board members, peer leaders, family, or friends.
When we are open, truly open, to learning from others without defensiveness or ego, our growth accelerates.
I call these people gamechangers. They are people with a roadmap to success who are willing to share it to help you achieve your business, family, and personal goals. They help us think more clearly, act more decisively, and lead more courageously in business and in life.
Hold others and yourself accountable to achieve goals, too. If you set up a framework within a group that encourages this, you’ll find much greater success within your organization. With colleagues making bold commitments that are then followed up by their actions, common goals can be achieved far more easily. When people commit to themselves, as well as others, they are far more likely to follow through, resulting in greater group success.
We are all doing the best we can at any given moment but that doesn’t mean we are necessarily performing at our best all the time. The secret is both to recognize that in others, be clear of any judgment of them, and to recognize all of that in yourself above all. Over time, judgment-free leadership will help enable stronger relationships and sustained performance as a result. And you’ll start to feel far less lonely at the top.
Read the article on forbes.com
