Health Drives How Well You Embody Your Leadership Values

I have been working really hard with my assistant, Gracie, and our ghostwriter, Emilie, on the leadership book we are writing. While discussing some of my core beliefs on leadership, I was reminded of how important it is for leaders to understand the values that people look for and expect from their leaders. It is equally important that, as a leader, you present yourself as the steady individual who shows those values every day and, in the best case, in every moment. Some of the most basic ‘blocking and tackling’ values for leadership are exhibiting love, care, integrity, selflessness, and clear communication. And while these values are easy to deliver in some moments, in other moments – on weaker days – they are hard to stay consistent with. This begs the question: “how do I remain the steady leader who can always remain the person of these values and never be lesser of a person before those who look up to me?”

The answer comes down to your health.

For me, health is broken up into three areas of your life: You have to be healthy physically, mentally and spiritually. I will try to make each of these very simple for the purposes of today’s reading.

Physical Health

Physically, your body is the vessel you will use to deliver your leadership. So, if you want to optimize your leadership ability, you need to optimize the vessel you use to actually execute that. Focus on three main areas of your physical health: your quantity and quality of sleep, your nutrition, and your exercise. Take care of yourself in these areas for your physical health every single day - it is as simple as that.

Mental Health

Similarly, I believe mental health is assessed by two main indicators: do you feel like you are in control? And, how prepared are you to respond to adversity? Your ability to operate in those two areas of mental health will signify how healthy you are mentally. To be in control means you have a plan and a model for thinking that helps you navigate through life. You should continue to test your thinking model over time as you learn from mentors, books you read, and podcasts you listen to. However, you choose to consume information, use that information to continually reevaluate your model for thinking. If you haven’t faced much adversity in your life, you need to manufacture adversity so you get used to overcoming struggles. This helps you to refine and hone your responsiveactions so that when you are attacked externally with some unforeseen adversity, you are capable of responding to that and not just be crippled by it.

Spiritual Health

To me, the clear indicator of spiritual health pertains to your mindset. Your mindset –or, your focus – controls your actions. When you move throughout the day, are you thinking most about yourself? Or, are you thinking more about others? The more spiritually healthy you are, the more you seek to serve others in your life. Conversely, when you are spiritually ill, you focus primarily on your own needs and desires. Consider where you are at on this scale.

Health – physically, mentally and spiritually –helps you be the person you want to be and embody those important leadership values consistently throughout the day, every day.

You may ask yourself next, how can I become as healthy as possible?

I think the easiest way for most people, and certainly for myself, starts with your morning routine. Are you starting every single day with a morning routine that optimizes your health? Are you doing something every single day that optimizes your physical health, your mental health, your spiritual health? You certainly don’t have to make up years of lost ground all in one morning, but you MUST do something every single morning to improve your health in those three areas. And when you do that, you will become healthier; and when you become healthier, you will be that steady leader people want you to be. You will be the leader who exhibits the values, is looked up to, doesn’t falter in the face of adversity, can withstand outside attacks, and has the endurance to be the lasting leader people desire and deserve.

Written by Schuyler Williamson

REALTOR. Leader. Veteran. Business Owner. Investor.

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God Bless!

~ Schuyler Williamson