Hey leaders. Welcome to episode 88.
Today’s episode is key to my Surface Leadership strategy. This is a strategy I share to develop confidence in your leadership skills. And today’s episode is about accepting the ugly truth when we dip below the surface in our leadership role.
It happens to everyone. And it means you are human. It’s normal.
And it also signals a key opportunity.
This is about my confidence-building strategy I refer to as Surface Leadership. If you’re new to this strategy I recommend taking 8 minutes and listening, or re-listening, to episode 79 Are You Using The Surface Leadership Strategy?
Do You Need A Confidence Boost In Your Direct Sales Leadership Skills?
The most important piece to Surface Leadership is being able to recognize when you’re leading above the surface and when you’re leading below the surface.
Two Important Steps To Gain Confidence In Your Direct Sales Leadership Skills
The first and most important step is awareness.
Being able to recognize when you’re closed off to something, when you’re reactive, needing to be right, when you’re uncertain, or just getting by. These are just a few examples of how ‘below the surface’ traits may show up in your leadership.
In the previous episode I mentioned, episode 79, I give you more examples.
Remember, leading below the line is innate, almost a given that this will happen to every leader off and on throughout our success journeys. The key is to be able to recognize it.
We must first have this awareness to know if we are above or below the surface when we are leading. How do know?
Pause. Take a breath. Simply ask. “Am I above the surface or below the surface right now?”
If your self-awareness tells you you’re below the surface, what do you do next? Let’s cover what not to do first.
It’s important not to start with negative self-talk. Don’t beat yourself up mentally. Don’t go down that rabbit hole of spiraling thoughts. It leads to more doubt, less confidence in leadership skills, and getting stuck.
Instead, move forward to step two.
Step two is acceptance. Pause. Take another breath. Literally. A deep breath. It gives your mind a chance to stop racing in this moment.
How To Get Present And Be In The Moment As A Direct Sales Leader
It allows you to get present in the moment. You’re either breathing in, or breathing out. You can’t do both at the same time. So pause, breathe, and turn your attention to your breath.
Getting present in the moment allows you to be with what is currently happening right here and now.
It allows you to focus just on your breath and not on drama, anxiety, blame, scarcity, or any of the many things that can jump in when we’re at a crossroads of knowing we’re below the surface but haven’t yet gotten ourselves back up above the surface.
This pausing taking a breath, allows for you to receive and accept yourself for being where you are.
Then, and only then, can we consciously move forward. We’re much less likely to keep bobbing up and down above and below the surface. Caught in the frustration of whatever got us below the surface in the first place and struggling to rise back up.
Pausing and taking a breath allows you to move from step one: awareness, to step two: acceptance.
Step two is simply that. Accepting where you are. Accepting you’ve dipped below the surface. So what. You will rise above it because you know what is happening. You know what’s going on. You’ve recognized it. You can accept it. And you can move forward.
Again, it’s most important that you can recognize this for yourself. It’s less important that you are actually below the surface.
Without awareness and without acceptance, you can’t get back above the surface.
Going forward, your takeaway is to simply notice, be aware, and then accept. It goes like this:
Notice.
Pause.
Take a breath.
Ask the question “Am I above or below the surface right now?”
Pause.
Take a breath.
Accept where you are.
Click over to Instagram @yourcrazybigdreams and drop me a note. I would love to connect.
The best is yet to come, friend. Always.
