As the months wore on it became painfully obvious. My grand plan had gone horribly off-track. With pride and excitement, my team and I spent many days at the end of 2008 planning for a $1.5 million year in 2009.

By February, part of that strategy had crumbled as a key partner in one of my programs extracted themselves. By June it was terrifyingly clear that something was very, very wrong. Something bigger than the economy and the rampant competition of other business coaches. Clients were dropping, our lead sources had slowed to a crawl, and I was starting to panic.

My brain was swirling with negative chatter: “I know HOW to do this! Why are things feeling like they are falling apart? Crap, there is no way I’m going to hit my mark now. What’s wrong with me?”

I had lost my mojo. Damn. I don’t lose my mojo.

Now what?

First I did what all good leaders do. I got depressed, withdrew from the world and focused on all the reasons I failed. When I stopped my pity party I did what all good transformationalists do – I turned within and to my support systems for guidance.

This is where my truth was revealed to me.

I had overused my core strength – collaboration – to inhabit my comfort zone at the expense of fully living my brilliance.

Everything I had built was designed for OTHER PEOPLE’S good, rather than my own. As I revitalized my truth, I also came face-to-face with something ever scarier. I had to be willing to let everything not built on my truth fall away and rebuild from my own place of power.

It became an extraordinary opportunity to practice the Three C’s of Genius Leadership:

Courage – Conviction – Confidence

I had to have the courage to face my mistake and move beyond it. Forgiving myself for going astray was as important as knowing what to do next. I also knew without a shadow of a doubt that this mistake and the pain I felt about it was also shared by many others. I would have to reveal my story so that others would know they are not alone. Scary. But when have I ever shied away from a challenge? Ugh.

I had to reconnect to my conviction. When you build on other people’s strengths or what other’s say will work, it’s easy to lose your way. Its tempting to squash that small voice inside that is screaming the truth when you over rely on third-party input. The minute I lost my way I also lost my conviction.

Part of reconnecting to my conviction meant I had to stop looking for validation outside of myself. I had to find that part of me that was obsessively driven no matter what people said, how they responded or whether or not they like me. I had to liberate myself from the chains of approval!

I had to recover my confidence. To run a successful business we have to have confidence. Part of the confidence that I had been lacking was the ability to 100% trust my instincts. As a leader, you are often called to make quick decisions. You won’t have all the facts but if you trust your intuition, you can’t go wrong.

What I learned was my intuition is always right. But sometimes, it didn’t look or feel right in the moment. When I would look back on times I trusted my intuition about someone or an opportunity, I would later see the facts that supported it. In the times I chose to not trust my intuition, it costed me a fortune emotionally, physically and financially.

In our world today I see leaders everywhere who have lost their way. A façade gets created, a lie is told and all of a sudden the lie becomes the reality. Settling into the comfort of financial stability, easy work or riding someone else’s coat tails becomes less painful than expressing your true genius.

If you are lucky, you will recognize the signs you are capable of more and respond to the call. Remember to reconnect to your Three C’s of Genius Leadership to uplevel your game.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 8:45 am and is filed under Leadership Strategies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.