Thank you to the Business Leadership class at GCS
for inviting me to present Lord Alfred Tennyson's Trinity of Excellence.
The Trinity of Excellence is
"Self-Reverence, Self-Knowledge and Self-Control". In my
opinion, effective and transformational leadership starts with an understanding
and practice of these elements.
Self Reverence
· Liking or
loving yourself
· Being
comfortable in your own skin
· Understanding
you are enough
Self-Reverence leads to:
Self Confidence – Believing in myself –
No perfection. Set high standards and do your best. If I don’t
believe in me, then neither will followers.
Self Respect – honor, virtue, integrity,
honesty and dignity – If I model for organizational culture
Self Esteem – take
care of yourself and avoid unhealthy habits – less likely to seek escape in
substance abuse, workaholism.
Prevents Egotism - exaggerated
sense of self importance - focus on self instead of real problems or
follower development
A lack of Self-Reverence may lead to not so
attractive personal characteristics:
Insecurity, Envy, Greed, Vacillation,
Procrastination, over cautiousness, Pessimism, Cynicism, Arrogance
Guilt, Self pity
Self Knowledge – Know thyself
Being aware of capabilities you have and the
knowledge and capabilities you don’t have. It’s ok to not know
everything. “Its not what you do not know that gets you into trouble, it
is what you know for sure that is not so”
Ignorance of oneself can lead to leaders trying
something they are really not able to do.
Leaders influence subordinates to achieve goals. Leaders who do
not understand how they affect others lead effectively only by accident. The complicated part of self-knowledge is
that we are always changing. Self Knowledge is like a moving target.
Also important to know how you are likely to react
to in assorted situations:
How do you handle pressure?
How do you handle ambiguity and uncertainty?
How do you handle criticism?
How do you function when tired?
How do you handle disappointment and bad news?
What mistakes are you prone to making?
What buttons do people have to push to get you to
do something that you know you should not do?
How well do you listen?
Why do you want the things you want?
Self Control
Power over ones basic instincts, desires and
emotions. If you can’t control your emotions you can’t be expected to
effectively control situations, resources and people.
Self-control enables the leader to focus on the
situational needs.
Self-control inspires confidence, calm, loyalty,
helpfulness, collegiality, attention to duty and the will to do a job well.
Lack of self-control leads to anger, rage,
overreaction, recklessness, panic, anxiety, impetuousness, obstinacy and poor judgment.
No comments:
Post a Comment