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Thursday, October 7, 2010

Just a thought...

Last night I finished watching the latest episode of Survivor. Jimmy T is the fourth voted out. What got him in the end was his puny-kid insecure attitude of "Put me in coach" syndrome. Whining about not being used to his fullest potential etched on half of the tribe; if not more.

Regardless of whether Jimmy T would have lead the tribe to a win; we'll never know. But I learned something valuable about leadership through Jimmy T and for that, I thank him (or perhaps I should thank survivor directors for editing in this part of the story). I'm going to share this lesson with you.

How can your team feel secure in your leadership when:

1. You don't feel secure about yourself
2. You can't make yourself a trusted follower.

It's not a complicated thing to understand, and I won't go into details about this episode or previous ones save for this: Jimmy T obviously did not feel secure in his place and it did not make him a trusted follower. All leaders as one point were trusted followers. If you can't trust yourself, others will not trust you either. It's a vicious cycle.

So if you are wondering why you're shouting "Right! Right! Right!" and your kayak team steers left, maybe it's not your team that is the problem. Are you shouting with insecurities? Do you trust yourself? Can you step back and be a follower first?

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