Great leaders are not determined by their level of skill, rather their ability to demonstrate the behaviours of a leader consistently. One essential behaviour in leadership is sovereignty, or the ability to behave like a sovereign. That is what I will cover below, how to behave like a sovereign to become a better leader?
Dr Karl Jung in the mid-1900s first established the idea of archetypes. An archetype is, in Jungian theory, a primitive mental image inherited from the earliest human ancestors. In simple terms, archetypes are types of our personalities. Dr Rohan Weerasinghe, a Master communicator, taught me that we, as people, have four archetypes: The warrior, the lover, the magician and the sovereign. Each one of those archetypes has unique abilities, which can be combined and when mastered, greatly benefit our communication skills.
As a leader we must be aware of which area of our personality is in control. For example, if we were to be confrontational (the warrior) in every situation we would come across as pushy, aggressive and unlikable. As leaders, we must remain calm and composed no matter the situation.
As leaders we can learn an incredible lesson from Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, an inspirational leader. Each year, no matter how tough a situation the United Kingdom is in, no matter what difficulties they face and no matter the differences amongst its population, millions tune in to watch the Queen’s speech. Each year, despite adversity, the Queen provides providence. Each year, despite disparity, the Queen provides harmony. Each year, despite turbulence, the Queen provides calm. That is the role of the sovereign. The personality type which takes centre stage as a leader. The sovereign controls all other personality types and provides rationality to make calm, collected and composed decisions. The leader is a sovereign.
As leaders we need to be aware of how we let our emotions take control of our decisions and communications. Often, we let other people affect how we behave. The person who cut in front of you whilst driving to work, the person who did not hold the elevator door for you when you were running late for a meeting, or the person who did not say thank you when you held the door open. Even seemingly small things affect our mood which can affect our behaviour towards others. We cannot stop external influencers creating problems and should not waste our time trying to block ourselves from everything bad in the world. We must however, be self-aware that the way others behave can influence our behaviour. However, if we allow them to affect us then we’ve allowed them to influence us. We have lost control of our sovereign state of mind.
Leaders are human beings and are affected by external influences just the same as everyone else. But once we become self-aware of why we are influenced by these issues we can start to control our emotions towards them. As leaders we must be strong and focus on controlling our emotions even in difficult times. We must train ourselves to become mentally resilient to external influences so that we maintain our sovereign state of mind.
As I discussed in my recent post, the path of leadership is challenging and requires discipline. This discipline to continue to behave as a leader should, in particularly to be aware of ones feelings and control ones emotions. Mastering ones emotions, or behaving like a sovereign, will lead to better decisions and greater levels of leadership influence.
If you adopt this behavioural principle today and practice implementing in, then in time you will notice a profound difference in both your ability to lead and personal development.
Thank you for reading, JT
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