In the last article, I talked about the critical concept of the myth of competence in leaders’ lives. I provided a chart that distinguishes between leading with excellence verses competence. I encouraged you to reflect on what attributes of excellence or competence that you saw coming out in your own life. What did you learn about yourself?
Well, I did not want to leave you hanging about what to then do to make sure you are living a life of excellence. Here are some steps to take to overcome this leadership myth.
Self Awareness & Leading with Excellence
By identifying patterns of competence or excellence in your life, you did the first important step, which is self-awareness. Self-awareness is necessary to addressing root problems. When we don’t become self-aware, we try to fix symptoms and never fix the real issue and so the problems continue. We can see this happening in individual lives and in organizations. To get to the root, first get aware.
Internal Value & Leading with Excellence
Next, it is helpful to understand how our problem symptoms provide satisfaction or comfort. When we choose to live out the myth of competence, it is because in some way it reduces anxiety and brings momentary comfort. For example, you avoid holding a supervisee accountable for a behavior that goes against the company’s values. You rationalize that their behavior is “not a big deal.” By avoiding the confrontation, you receive the momentary comfort from fear of not pleasing another person.
It would be helpful to reflect on your past conditioning growing up. Did you obey adults because of fear of punishment? Or did you learn to obey others out of mutual respect? Did you learn to control yourself based on external expectations set up by others? Or did you learn self-control motivated by internal values? Do you live motivated by fear or love? If you find that most of your drive in your current life is coming from fear, you have probably been conditioned to live by the myth of competence.
The myth of competence is based on the belief that your value comes from meeting the external expectations of others or systems around you. The key to living out of excellence is truly believing in your own inherit value that comes from the inside.
Identity & Leading with Excellence
This brings us to the third step of living a life of excellence. The solution lies in identifying what is the basis for your identity. Does your identity come externally or internally? What is the foundation for your identity? Do you have an identity statement just in your mind or do you truly believe it? An identity statement answers the question: “Who am I?” In the next article, I will further address the concept of an identity statement.
Out of that secure identity that comes from internal value, then live for excellence. As leaders we are called to be faithful to the vision, mission and values, not to results and expectations of others. When we are motivated by the core identity attached to mission, results follow.