Your Memoir in Six Words
For our May meetings, I asked the members of each of my three leadership peer groups to write their memoirs in six words or less. I borrowed the idea from Smith Magazine. This “blogazine” has been publishing six-word memoirs since a guy named Larry Smith launched the digital pub in 2006.
Some of my group members asked me, “What do six-word memoirs have to do with leadership?”
My answer is that emotional self-awareness is the cornerstone of leadership and anything that improves our self-awareness can enhance our leadership skills. Until we understand how we’re wired, why we’re wired that way, and how our wiring creates head trash and negative self-talk that influences how we interact with others, we will not be the best leaders we can be.
My six-word memoir is: “I coach better than I play.” It defines and memorializes me in the context of my work.
I ran a small business for four years and I was an ineffective leader. It was a painful experience but I learned a lot from it that I apply in my role as an executive coach working with individuals and the members of my three groups. That difficult-to-acknowledge experience has contributed abundantly to my success as an executive coach.
One of my group members says, “We are all wired to play a certain position, and when we play out of position, we struggle to play our best.” It’s an adage that applies in our professional lives as surely as it applies in sports. Do you know what position you’re wired to play?