Becoming a disciplined leader takes hard work. You can see that through the previous articles in The Disciplined Leaders series.
You have to work hard to become disciplined. But the payoff is well worth the effort.
Something amazing happens when you become a disciplined leader. You become a leader worth following.
The disciplined leader has shown he is worthy to be followed. Because he can follow.
There’s also another reason you want to become a disciplined leader. As you become disciplined, you learn truths. You discover things about yourself you never knew before.
Why You Want To Become A Disciplined Leader
You begin to discover:
1. You don’t have to listen to your feelings
Your feelings can get you into trouble if you listen to them and give in to every whim you have. Your feelings will tell you that you’re hurt or angry or can’t go on. Those feelings are a lie.
They’ll trap you in a pity party. They’ll stop you from becoming great.
The power in becoming disciplined is you can tell yourself “No, I feel this way but it is not who I am or where I’m going.” Instead, you take your feelings under control and tell your feelings what you’re going to do instead.
This transfers power from your thoughts to yourself. You control your actions regardless of what your thoughts are telling you.
2. You don’t give into temptation:
Many leaders have fallen because they gave into a temptation. The temptation to cheat on their spouse, the temptation to skim money from the books, or the temptation to look the other way as others gossip about coworkers.
Instead, the disciplined leader knows these actions are unacceptable. They cannot be tolerated. And you don’t. You speak up when you see the wrong things being done. You resist the temptation to cheat. And you choose to speak well of those you work with.
This is because you’ve disciplined yourself to do the right thing. You can do it with discipline!
3. You don’t lose your temper unnecessarily:
Without discipline, you could fly off the handle because of a simple issue. With discipline, you know there’s a proper way to respond to adversity. And throwing a temper tantrum isn’t the way to deal with a problem.
Rather, you choose to take a couple of deep breaths. You calmly and rationally think about the situation. And then you act in a cool and collected manner.
Your response doesn’t stem from an uncontrolled, unhinged place. Because you’ve trained and disciplined your mind, you’re able to respond from a good place.
When you put all of these reasons together, you can see the power in being a disciplined leader. In the end, you become a leader worth following.
People want to follow someone who doesn’t listen to their feelings all of the time. They want someone who can see the forest and the trees.
People want someone who is honest and upright. They want to be led by someone with integrity.
Lastly, people want a level-headed leader. Someone who can keep their cool in the most difficult of situations.
This is what being disciplined does for your leadership. And you need to be disciplined.
