by David D McLeod (USA)

The Prime Directive

As a decent coach who recognises that you are a spiritual being participating in a transitory physical human experience, you do personal inner work in order to heal your old wounds and raise your level of consciousness. This inner work usually involves processes to tame or quiet your ego-mind and to allow your soul to emerge into the forefront of awareness as a source of authentic guidance. In other words, as someone who is truly dedicated to raising awareness and improving the world, then your first priority is to do your own work as an example to the people you intend to support.

This process of ‘walking the talk’ is a prime directive of all coaches, and—not surprisingly—it is also a prime directive of the most successful and inspiring leaders. After all, as most of us already know, like it or not, the way we show up in the world reflects what we believe about ourselves and how we are likely to interact with others. But more than that: our expressed behaviours are clear indicators of our expected leadership style.

Leader Styles

Numerous attempts have been made to come up with a more-or-less definitive categorisation of leader styles. One of the most succinct and expressive models consists of only 5 categories:

  1. Authoritarian. The leader is in command, and directs all operations toward the fulfilment of a desired objective.
  2. Collaborative. The leader seeks to encourage participation through some form of democratic process that allows team members to help define and achieve the objectives.
  3. Delegative. The leader assigns responsibility for a specific task or sub-goals to individual team members, presumably based upon their competencies.
  4. Transactional. The leader uses a reward system to motivate team members to achieve specific goals in service to the main objective.
  5. Transformational. The leader holds the vision for the ultimate objective and inspires team members to enrol themselves into this vision and empowers them to bring it into reality.

Every leader style has benefits and drawbacks, and the consummate leader invariably engages many different styles as needed according to the circumstances at hand.

Source: iCN Issue 34  (Leadership Coaching); pages 52-55

About David McLeod

Fighter pilot. Best-selling author. Software engineer. Mentor. Aerobics instructor. Poet. Janitor. Lifeguard. Musician. Graphics designer. Father. Student. Teacher. Photographer. Ordained minister. Yogi.

These roles—past and present—add up to a LOT of life experience, which David McLeod brings to bear in his capacity as a transformational speaker, life-mastery coach, experiential facilitator, and writer/storyteller.

As a Certified Master Life Coach with a PhD in Metaphysical Sciences and a DD in Holistic Personal Coaching, David shares his wisdom, insights, personal lessons, and expertise in countless ways that help people all over the world to become true Masters of their lives.

Find out more at: https://www.thewellnessuniverse.com/worldchangers/davidmcleod/