Your character and personality are the main course offering of the menu that is you. As the entrée is the substance and star of the dining experience, your character and personality are the center of your leadership offering. Whatever your role is, it ultimately reflects the essential “you.”
What makes great leaders even better is an acknowledgement of serving a higher, greater purpose. That acknowledgement comes from a place of understanding that the assignment and role is greater than an individual or personal agenda. A life filled with purpose begins with a day lived on purpose.
How is your dessert offering? Once we are able to understand who we are, what we’re good at, and how to present ourselves as experts and authorities in our leadership roles, it is important to also have a skill that “seals the deal.” I believe this is the place where we allow our personalities to shine.
Let’s take a moment and review our opinions of a few recent leaders and examine what it was that made them charismatic… or not. Consider a few political figures, Presidents Barack Obama, George Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Without conducting a deep-dive into the philosophical paradigms of each, we are all able to identify some personality trait that either drew us to them or drove us away from them. The confident relatability of President Obama, the tenacious humility of President Bush, and elder statesman persona of President Reagan gave them an intangible quality that provoked the imagination of what was possible for their constituents and inspired action. Their politics benefited from their personalities.
Your personality is the dessert portion of the menu that is you.
