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Vision
October 13, 2024
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By Robin Pou

Stop Being Stuck. Take a Leap Forward. (#218)

TCL Illustration 218

The Confident Leader

BOOST YOUR LEADERSHIP IN UNCERTAIN TIMES


This year in one of our Peer Groups, we are focusing on leadership influence. The assignment is for each CEO to map their leadership influence from the earliest days they can remember to the present. Some are reflecting on experiences as far back as high school. The revelations are astounding.

“Sometimes you have to take a step back to move forward.”

―  Erika Taylor (American author)

This Week’s Edition


Leadership influence is impacting the behaviors, attitudes, opinions, and choices of others for the benefit of the individual, group, organization, or mission.

Clarify Your Thinking


We rarely look back. Our leadership life presses each of us forward and at an unprecedented rate. The fear is that if we aren’t constantly looking ahead, we will end up behind. This leaves many leaders feeling as if there is no time to reflect on the past.


But as many CEOs are feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, and unable to move their businesses forward in the way they envision, it is possible that pausing to reflect on the past may hold some answers for how to unlock the future.


Remembering the leadership influence you’ve had throughout your career may provide the inspiration needed for your current leadership situation.  


Sometimes we need to look back to leap forward. 

Old Thinking: My leadership influence feels flat. I’m not feeling as if I able to lead us where I know we need to go. I will keep grinding and hope a breakthrough happens soon.



New Thinking: Continuing to grind it out, one inch at a time, is not working. I might need to reflect on the past for some clues as to how to leverage my leadership influence and accelerate our momentum. I will endure the perceived loss of time required to reflect, trusting that the investment will pay off. 

Thoughts Lead to Actions

Reflection is considered a valuable tool for leaders and is credited with the ability to: 


A Harvard Business Study found that spending 15 minutes reflecting and writing about the key lessons they learned that day improved their productivity by 22.8% in just ten days, compared to a control group of peer employees who did not. A month later, those who reflected had maintained that higher productivity level.


The challenge of incorporating a reflective process into your leadership life is twofold:

  • How do I reflect?
  • When do I make time to reflect?



WHEN: For over a decade, I’ve subscribed to the concept of Leadership Thinking Time. I recommend leaders schedule a weekly 90-minute appointment with themselves to take a break from working “in” the business to working “on” the business. This allocation of time provides an opportunity to reflect on the previous week.

HOW: Like the CEOs in our Peer Group, create a map of your leadership influence journey. This will allow you to reconnect with past examples of when you discovered, used, and experienced your leadership influence. 


Here’s how to create your own leadership influence map:

Step 1: Identify times in your life when you demonstrated your leadership influence.

  • When thinking about the concept of “influence” think about its definition: influence is your ability to have an impact on the behaviors, attitudes, opinions, and choices of others.

Step 2: Write out each influence experience.

  • Use PowerPoint to highlight each experience. Think about including images and photos from your past to bring it to life.
  • For the more kinesthetically inclined, use a poster board and make it an art project. 

Step 3: Share your story of leadership influence with others.

  • Ask your listeners to capture attributes they hear in your story. 
  • Ask them to share their input only after you’ve concluded your presentation.




We’ve all learned lessons along the arduous journey called life and leadership. Do we remember those lessons, or are we doomed to repeat old behaviors, learning the same lessons again and again?


Take two hours to reflect on your leadership influence over the years and bring forward those things that may be useful for today’s leadership challenges. 

Boost Your Performance

Watch this week’s video to learn about the journey I went on to identify those who inspire me and how that impacts my leadership coaching for each of you.

What’s Your Opinion?

What’s your best advice for how to effectively reflect on your leadership? Let me know: robin.pou@robinpou.com

If you are going to be a leader, you might as well be a good one. Don’t let doubt count you out. Have a confident week!

Robin Pou, Chief Advisor and Strategist

We live to make bad leadership extinct so forward this newsletter to others who strive to be confident leaders. 

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What is “The Confident Leader”?

During the Covid-19 Pandemic, I began a video series called “Panic or Plan?” It was designed to equip leaders to navigate the doubt they experienced and to rise in the confidence they needed to lead during turbulent times. It took off. I then started this newsletter to equip leaders in the same fashion each week for the doubt that crashes across the bow of their leaderSHIP.

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