Fit for Leading?

I recently made a new friend, a master in the field of executive health and wellness. As we discussed executive vitality, I begin to think beyond physical fitness about what all does it mean to be fit for leading?  

In addition to vitality, I believe there are three other critical elements for being fit for leading that include: character, personal growth and performance skills.  One of the elements of character is integrity which in my opinion, is the non-negotiable cornerstone that holds all of the rest of the elements of leadership in place. No matter how physically fit you might be, or what skill sets you have, it doesn’t matter if we can’t trust you.

Personal growth encompasses the development of character and a multitude of other leadership traits based on things like awareness, intentionality, consistency, discipline, curiosity, dependability, and contribution.

John Maxwell frequently teaches about the Law of the Lid which states that an organization can never grow beyond the character and capacities of its leaders. He states that if you want to grow your company, you must grow your leaders.  

Finally, if we are physically fit, have great character, and are wonderful people and team players, we must also make certain that we have the crucial performance skills needed for successful achievement of our personal and business goals. Our ever-changing society and business environment force us into a constant state of learning new skills and adapting.  

Everyday, we must work on becoming fit for leading by building our character, our skills, who we are, and our vitality.  At Triad, we know how important each of these “stool legs” are to success and also know that if we don’t pay equal attention to each, that our leadership stool will be crooked or worse, fall over.