New book affirms that true leadership lies in recognizing human imperfections

James Robilotta has held a variety of roles in his life, from student leader to student affairs professional, comedian, public speaker, and personal life coach. Those experiences have given him the opportunity to lead, be mentored, and help develop new leaders, ultimately leading him to a powerful understanding: “I see a problem in developing leaders today: they think they need to be someone they shouldn’t. get. what they want. This mindset has a negative impact on the way they communicate and build relationships with colleagues, co-workers and supervisors. “

James can see this flaw because it is one that he himself admitted; For example, in high school he took on multiple leadership roles not because he was committed to being a leader, but because of how it would look on his resume, and in college, he tried to dress well to fit popular ideas of what he meant. meant to be “cool”. Fortunately, James realized these flaws and changed, as well as learning to laugh at himself and use these stories as examples to illustrate the importance of his message on leadership. Now, in his new book, Leading Imperfectly: The Value of Being Authentic for Leaders, Professionals, and Human Beings, James argues that the mistakes we make and our imperfections are where we learn our most valuable lessons; Those character flaws are what eventually mold us into successful leaders who are not afraid to share our imperfections.

The idea of ​​imperfect leadership resonates with James because it gives us a human place to connect with others. He states that allowing ourselves to be imperfect “increases open and honest communication between all levels of the hierarchy because then you will be leading from a place of support and understanding rather than one of fear and pressure.”

Another way that many leaders pretend to be something different than they are is in the stories they tell. James is tired of hearing from the same people regarded as examples of greatness: “If I hear one more time that Michael Jordan was eliminated from his high school basketball team or that Wayne Gretzky said, ‘You miss 100 percent of shots that you don’t drink, ‘it might boil. “He does not deny that Susan B. Anthony, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and a host of other famous people accomplished wonderful things, but he believes that we cannot reach the people we are leading by giving them examples to serve as a model. “Trying to inspire a student, apprentice, peer, family member, etc., by suggesting that they look more like one of the people above makes as much sense as trying to motivate a little boy who wants to be a lumberjack with Paul Bunyan. amazing story, but unrealistic. Instead, introduce that child to the local lumberjack who is climbing the ladder of success. ” After all, “today’s students will become us before they become the future heroes of the world.” So James says we need to tell our own stories and show that we are human, and that’s where we will get the people we lead to connect with us.

In short, none of us are perfect, and when we pretend to be, people stop listening to us. Instead, we should focus on trying to connect with others. Leading Imperfectly is full of examples on how to make those connections. The book is divided into a series of short, often funny and always insightful essays, filled with real-life stories from James’ own life. Other topics discuss the importance of learning to love others, how to avoid over-committing because you can’t be everything to everyone, realizing that you don’t have all the answers, and some practical advice on the importance of valuing time to have and to give. that time to the most important people in our lives. James also challenges us to look at the lies we tell ourselves that hold us back in life, and to learn to listen to others so that they will listen to us. (I imagine you know a lot about the importance of getting people to listen to you based on your improv experience.)

James’ humor provides comic relief in the midst of some of the more serious stories, but humor always brings his examples home and makes his stories memorable. I also appreciate that while he speaks like someone who has been successful in life, his leadership experience is not that of the typical leader who writes leadership books, he is not a former CEO of a company or a famous athlete, and that makes him your points stand out completely. how much more. As James knows, we are all leaders in some way in our lives. We are all examples to someone, and we often influence others in many ways. We can end up being a leader to the stranger we meet in the cafeteria or to a young child and we don’t even know the power of our influence. As James says: “We all have the ability to educate. I challenge you to act. Own who you are so that you can be real to others.”

After reading Leading Imperfectly, I am less inclined to hide my failures and instead tell stories of how the mistakes I made got me where I am today. James encourages us to lead from our failures, and it is advice that we can all listen to with relief and apply with better results to ourselves and to all who may be watching or listening to us. Take a look at Leading Imperfectly. Between the laughs, there’s a bit of wisdom that will stick with you long after you turn the last page.

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