How to Practice Centered Leadership

Centered Leadership is a term coined in McKinsey & Company’s Global Survey which has been interviewing female leaders around the world to identify traits that characterize them collectively.

There are 5 key capabilities of Centered Leadership when used together—are important predictors of these executives’ satisfaction with their leadership performance and their life overall:

Meaning:

Finding your strengths and putting them to work in the service of a purpose that inspires you

Positive Framing:

Adopting a more constructive way to view your world and convert even difficult situations into opportunities

Connecting:

Building a stronger sense of community and belonging

Engaging:

Pursuing opportunities disguised by risk

Energizing:

Practicing ways to sustain your energy on a long leadership journey

 Surveying Your Centered Leadership

Rate each statement accordingly: 1=Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3=Not sure/neutral, 4=Agree, 5=Strongly Agree

___ 1. I actively build communities of people who give and get support from each other.

___ 2. I proactively ask senior people for opportunities that will help me develop.

___ 3. I actively find ways to help others and ways in which they can help me.

___ 4.  I make sure I calm & prepare myself before going into situations where I may get upset or angry.

___ 5. My passion for what I do inspires others.

___ 6. I take time to reflect on what really matters most to me.

___  7. I engage in activities that draw on my natural strengths.

___ 8. Every day, I consciously do things to keep myself energized.

___ 9. I have a noticeable energizing effect on others.

___ 10. I recognize and step beyond my fears so they don’t keep me from seizing good opportunities.

___ 11. When I experience a mistake or failure, I quickly come up with a plan to recover.