3Cs to Fortify Your Leadership

Whether you are a parent, student, working remote and managing teams, laid-off and looking, or retired, you are leading. You are leading your own life and self-leadership requires the same or similar thinking, skills, and personality facets as any role we agree to invest in and be responsible for during our lifetimes. As we move forward utilize your power to create, think, speak, and develop leadership strategies for balancing your decisions and their impact. Consider how you are expanding upon your capabilities as a leader at this crucial time.

3Cs of Leadership
A simple way to approach and fortify your leadership is to apply the 3Cs of Leadership, which include character, competency, and communication.

Character
This refers to your willingness to align and express your values. We demonstrate character through our choices. When we act, make decisions, and communicate in ways that foster trust we support collaboration. Trust is key. Simply put this means we need to consider: How we act or when we choose not to respond? How we contribute impacts our connection with people and the atmosphere surrounding our leadership presence. People take this in and eventually decide if we are trustable, or not. We also demonstrate what we value, which may tell the story of our character too. When we sustain authentic trust, we invest in elements needed to cultivate healthy, reliable relationships, which will also support productive collaboration.

Competency
Our willingness to learn is essential for developing expertise, knowledge, skills, and strategies. When we balance our competent perspective and include values, logic, facts, creativity, or innovation we are more equipped to design sustainable solutions. When we engage thoughtfulness and empathy with our expertise, we are more able to support productive change. If we trust our competency and include respect it is more natural to listen, learn, and act with discernment, and let go of destructive opinions and nonproductive judgments. We become “discerning” leaders who fortify trust rather than being overly evaluative and judgmental.

Communication
Stress levels and tone greatly impact leadership. This includes how and what we say, or do not say, and our capacity for listening to others as well as listening to ourselves. Timing is essential for effective communication. How we demonstrate that we are listening is a necessity today. It may require patience to educate, mentor, and coach. This includes patience with our own process and learning. Our willingness to demonstrate authentic listening has never been more needed. Leadership is a commitment to be responsible for our communication and when necessary to let go if others are resisting or unable to “get it”. This requires patience, fortitude, and the ability to pivot for a time. The tremendous thing about communication is that we can keep the lines of communication open and endeavor to make a connection again.

Apply The 3Cs of Leadership to fortify trust and collaborate with confidence.

Keeping character, competency, and communication at the forefront of our consciousness is crucial. As we learn to balance and align these elements with care and respect, we open new doors to support productive change. Think of it as an ongoing work in progress as well as a practice. Reflect on how you can apply the 3Cs in your daily life. Be sure to do so with kindness and grace, not criticism or frustration with yourself and others. Many struggle with patience and may not be aligned or collaborating with solid trust. Using these three elements to frame what you want to say and convey will prove to be beneficial.

Consider how to apply the 3Cs to direct yourself, impart information, or create recommendations to share with collaborators in life and at work. Fortify your leadership with the 3Cs and maintain calm to navigate these unique times. Your creativity and leadership are needed in this world.