I spent last week doing a certification for a new leadership tool we’re using across our client base at Lockstep. The certification process took 5 long days – my ADHD tendencies were tested…
However, several interesting insights came out of the certification process, and one in particular: the naming of whether a CEO is in a CREATIVE or REACTIVE state. This is the central measurement of the entire profile: which of these two states the leader occupies.
I don’t think it’ll surprise anyone reading this letter that most leaders are in the REACTIVE mode. The business landscape pushes us all this way because – simply put – being a CEO is a very hard job. The pressures of performance, delivery and managing constant change make one reactive by nature.
However, there’s a deeper insight to understand, which is this:
‘Liberate your strengths from a reactive structure, and they become a gift”
This insight is highly consequential for a CEO so I want to unpack why this is the case:
Truth 1: In a REACTIVE mode, everything gets dulled by the strained nervous system. So
whatever is vital becomes undynamic.
Truth 2: Exceptional CEOship relies on the CEO unearthing and deploying their ‘gifts’ (the
talents that are innate and appear without effort or force).
Truth 3: If you have a strength that is showing up in a REACTIVE MODE, it will become a
gift if you can change your state to the CREATIVE mode.
I have learned the consequences of being in a stressed mode for most of my life. It is a taxing, unpleasant and arduous way to live. Having recently become able to break this pattern, I can vouch for how completely different the CREATIVE mode feels to operate within: high-trust; light; nimble; joyful.
So, if you are part of the vast majority of CEOs who are stuck in a REACTIVE mode, know that you can change your state. It can be done, but you’re going to have to take it on and do some hard work.
The nature of that hard work is unknown, but it’s waiting for you and it is beckoning you. The sooner you make the choice to change your orientation toward life and toward being a CEO, the sooner these powerful and attractive life characteristics will come your way.
It is impossible not to pick up bruises from life. Equally, it is possible to rid yourself of them and create a more powerful version of yourself in its place.
Liberate your gifts, CEO’s of the world. Can you imagine the aggregated knock-on effect on society in doing so?
Game-changing.