Understanding your guiding principles

In a recent conversation with my mentor, I was asked to consider the “guiding principles in my life” currently. At first I was pretty flummoxed by the question but, as I took time to think about it, I came up with a list of beliefs that really do form the foundation of my life today, at work and beyond.

Why am I sharing these with you? After all, these are very personal to me and may be of little relevance to you. The reason for sharing is that the whole experience of self-reflection was hugely valuable – which is no doubt why my mentor challenged me to do it in the first place – and helped to give me clarity and perspective, which are both essential to leadership.

When we are faced with challenging situations as a leader, being clear on our guiding principles will help us to make the right decision, even when it feels as though we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.  

Leading others starts with self-leadership, and before we can lead ourselves, we must first know ourselves. Understanding our guiding principles and remembering the experiences that helped to form them are the foundation upon which our leadership is built and are almost certainly intrinsic to us becoming a leader in the first place.

My current guiding principles (in no particular order)

1. Consistency is the key to long-term success.
   Consistency of effort is essential for making something happen, and even when it’s hard to keep going, we must keep doing so. Even the smallest step forward is still progress.
2. When things don’t go well, the first thing to ask is, “How might I have contributed to this?”
   Taking responsibility and being self-aware, rather than immediately looking around to blame something or someone else, is the first step towards learning and improving.
3. If you think you can, or you think you can’t, then you’re probably right.
   Our state of mind has a direct impact on our ability to achieve something, both positively and negatively.
4. “If not now, when? If not you, who?”
   Variations on this phrase are bandied about in self-help books and management tomes but, as an action-orientated person, this call to arms really resonates with me.
5. We really do create the whole of our reality.
   When I first heard this back in 2008 I was sceptical, but now I see how true (at so many levels) it is and am reminded every day in a thousand ways.
6. We only ever live in the feeling of our thinking in the moment.
   I’ve written before about this and, once we know that this is true, it’s much easier not to let our thoughts influence our behaviour and reactions in a negative way.
7. There’s only one real problem in this world, and that’s when we grab hold of a thought and believe it to be true.
   Every conflict, every argument can be traced back to this, from the micro-moments in our everyday life, to global warfare.
8. Life is for living and giving, and positively impacting on others.
   My whole purpose is based on this as I get so much satisfaction from helping others find their own genius and fulfilment in life.
9. We should love and treat others as THEY wish to be loved and treated (not as we would want to be loved and treated).
   This may seem like an insignificant distinction, but actually it’s huge and important.
10. We will never fully understand all the mysteries of life.
    I believe that we’re spiritual beings living a human experience and there are certain aspects to our existence that remain unknowable. But this is why gut feel is so important, and we ignore it at our peril.

Thank you to my mentor for posing this question and I hope that I may have inspired you to think about your guiding principles. And if you’d appreciate the support of a mentor, please do get in touch to find out more about our mentoring programmes.