Lead Yourself First

By Austin Cragoe, Production Manager

Kristi and I recently attended our first Leadercast Live event. Leadercast is the largest one-day leadership event held live in Atlanta and broadcast live to locations around the globe. The livestream event was held locally at The District in Sioux Falls. Neither of us knew what to expect, but we were quickly surprised by the number of people who attended. Apparently we were missing out in past years.

Leadercast’s mission is to build leaders worth following. The mission hints at equipping viewers with the tools and knowledge they need to be the best possible leader for their followers. But this year’s theme set out to teach us that before you can lead others well, you must first learn to how to lead yourself.

The nine speakers this year ranged from leadership authors to fighter pilots to astronauts. They had a broad spectrum of advice for us that all pointed to one underlying theme – being aware and taking care of ourselves first will help us be better leaders. Below are three recurring points about how to lead yourself first:

1 – Know yourself.
How do you come across to others? What are your motivators? What distracts you from reaching your goals? Taking time to reflect on this and being honest with ourselves will bring self-awareness that we can react to accordingly.

2 – Know what breaks your heart.
According to author and speaker Andy Stanley, knowing what breaks your heart has led many leaders to discovering their purpose. “Every significant nonprofit that has made an impact in the world and most social movements that have impacted the world began with a broken-hearted leader,” explains Andy.

3 – Learn, learn, learn.
Leadership is a lifelong journey, and consistent learning is a critical part of it. Author Steve Franklin describes reading, empowering others and mentorship as essential learning elements for leaders.

One of the speakers, Michael Hyatt  summed it up best by saying, “You can’t take care of anyone else unless you first take care of yourself.”

I’m looking forward to applying some of this professional advice in my personal life as well. Perhaps I can convince my wife that going fishing by myself this weekend will better prepare me for the next family trip – I can try, right?

Leadercast was a great event and one that I look forward to attending again in the future!

Photo credits: Code:M Design