International Wellness Professionals Association

“Leadership attitude” is a balanced blend of a leading attitude and the ability to develop deep leadership skills by learning how to lead your life, how to communicate better and how to trust others.

It’s that simple. Yet, if you do not trust others, you can be a born leader and have a strong leadership attitude but be ineffective as a leader. When you don’t lead others by trusting them, they will not follow you.

Here are a few steps you can take to develop your leadership attitude:

Leadership Attitude: Step 1 – Lead Your Life

Show, don’t tell. This means modeling your leadership attitude through your expectations of others. Remember, too, that a leader is not a leader in only one part of her life; he/she is a leader in all parts of life. As a leader, you are what you eat, what you breathe, what you do and how you behave. You cannot be a model of good behavior at the office and then go home and kick your dog.

For all of us in the wellness arena, leading ourselves in our own lives is more important than leading others. Can you imagine telling others to drink more water but never drinking any yourself? Can you imagine trying to lead others to believe in themselves while doubting yourself and your own choices?

Leadership Attitude: Step 2 – Communicate Better

Leaders show that the best way to communicate is through believing that others are creative, resourceful and whole and will do the best they can. A leader delegates and frees up her/his time so that they can pay attention to other issues. When you believe in yourself and your ability to delegate to the right person while at the same time believing in others, the teamwork that results is powerful and complete.

It is more powerful to show a person “I believe in you” than to tell them. When you act as if you believe in yourself and your leadership attitude, then behaving like a leader is easy, and being followed like the leader you are becomes smooth and fulfilling for everyone.

Leadership Attitude: Step 3 – Trust Others

The old-fashioned school said, “Trust is earned.” The modern leadership attitude is that either you trust or you don’t trust. Either way you get burned, so why not take the more relaxed approach of believing that everyone is out to do and be the best they can, and see what happens? As a leader, that means keeping an eye on your team to see what they are doing right rather than what they are doing wrong.

Ask yourself, would I do better if I had a leader who was waiting for me to fail or one who was waiting for me to succeed? By trusting others, you bring warmth and confidence to your leadership attitude.

Download Monica Magnetti’s free eBook, Spark Your Business Success, and free MP3 download, Achieve More Clarity, to embrace your leadership attitude . Monica Magnetti is a Leadership Coach and a Branding Consultant like no other. She’s the Get What You Want Coach—so named by her satisfied clients because that’s the kind of coach she is.