The cycle of the empowering leader

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Discover BUD's steps in the cycle to become an empowering leader
17 Jun, 2019

Georgina Wilson, Founder and Leader of Business Under Development (BUD), shares her 4-step cycle to becoming an empowering leader, ahead of BUD’s community business leader event Activate – The Best Leaders Create Leaders”.

Leadership is a word that can have many meanings attached to it, depending on the circumstance or type of work you are involved in. I believe that in order to lead positive change it’s essential that you become an “empowering leader”. Sounds great doesn’t it? I hear many people say, “yes please…I’d like to be that and do that”. We created a 4-step cycle to help clarify what it is and how to do it.

First and foremost why is it a cycle? Yep you guessed it, leadership never ends, it’s always ongoing and there are always opportunities to learn more about yourself, others and the situations around you. And, just to be sure about what we mean, the empowering leader empowers others to be leaders, the exact reason why we’re hosting “Activate – The Best Leaders Create Leaders” on 10 July. But why do they empower others? Well, mainly I would say, to build networks of equipped and enabled people so that they can shine in their gifts and talents to come together for collaborative change.

Anyway, let’s get into the cycle….

Attention – pay attention to the vision, to yourself and others. What are your strong points? What areas do you need support in? What is the potential you can see in others? What are the possible ways this vision can be achieved? Let’s stop and pay attention to what is happening and what needs to happen. Intentionality is key and can only be achieved when we allow ourselves to be present with our reality and our now.

Ask – What are the questions that need to be asked and to whom? How will you know the right answers if you do not ask these the right questions? Sometimes we get stuck, and we get isolated and so caught up in the vision that we burn out because we don’t ask not only for help and we don’t enquire about anything. We make assumptions about who wants to be involved and who has this or that skill. But what if, just what if we asked questions to learn more about others, their interests, and their motivation? Could others get involved and be motivated to lead with you?

Accept – Allow people to be involved as much or as little as they want and need to be. And allow the process to, well just be. There is something so blissful about accepting what is and letting go, it feels good for those involved, plus the vision has the fluidity it needs in order to manifest. What I’m saying is, let’s not get caught up in the what if’s, they just take up energy we could be using more positively. However, do be clear about the overall objective. Freedom in a framework is a nice balance

Assess – Now that you’ve let others get involved and lead in in some way; openly reflect and assess what happened. What worked well? What elements did they enjoy? What could’ve been different? How would you do it next time?

And then…we go back to paying attention to what is happening now? What’s needed now, who else could you empower etc.

So there it is. Just by following this cycle you’re not only supporting new leaders to emerge, but you are taking action, reflecting and adapting as you go. Hopefully a recipe for the road to success! It’s never a straight line in the work we do, but a very satisfying and meaningful journey (we secretly like the scenic route, right?)

Find out more at Activate, our free empowering leaders event on 10th July in London! We only have a limited number of tickets so book before they go.

Wishing you every success in leading positive change!