Integrus Blog

LEADING from the INSIDE OUT

20 January 2021 | Debbi Gantt, Emotions, Leadership, Success

Discovering how our early life experiences affect us in adulthood is the key to becoming better leaders. Knowing the underlying emotions that keep us stuck will propel us into a stronger leader who has a greater impact on themselves and on all those around them.

Transform Self, Transform Cultures

In order to be good leaders at home, at work and in the community, we need to understand how we carry around early life experiences that block our success even without us realizing it. We become stressed, we disassociate, or we blame others.

But those childhood experiences also make us who we are today. But, any unresolved emotions from our early life experiences will blindside us to frustrating and stressful situations over and over again. We have to re-write the stories we have about those experiences.

How to regain control and get unstuck

Here is the fast-track approach to regain control of your life, get unstuck and become better leaders and better humans:

  1. Become self-aware. This is the CURE.

  2. Be curious about life experiences. Instead of reacting with those automatic programs in the brain, respond with CURIOSITY.

  3. Create CONFIDENCE from within. This can work by using music, post-it note reminders (I have mine on the bathroom mirror), slogans, or favourite motivational quotes.

  4. Be GRATEFUL for the lessons. We never have to approve of another person’s behaviours but we can always learn from them.

  5. Co-regulate with others. Everyone needs to feel connected and supported. CONNECTION is a primal need.

Early life experiences and the impact on our leadership skills today

I encourage my clients to look at how their early life experiences may be impacting their leadership skills today. We discover what it has cost them so far in life and what it is worth to move forward so that they get to a place of happiness and success. Working together to re-write those old stories into new, clearer stories. Then, moving into a new mindset where we understand what those stories taught us and how we can move forward with a greater understanding and compassion for self.


This content is produced by Peter Sylvester, the Founder of Integrus Global.

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