The Journey to Holistic Health
In his book, The Only Leaders Worth Following, Tim Spiker explores what characterizes the most effective leaders. From years of research on leadership effectiveness, he articulates the finding that leadership effectiveness is not primarily driven by the ability to cast a vision, think strategically, set direction, motivate a team, develop others, build a culture, or execute a plan. Those may be some of the attributes you might naturally think of when you think about desirable leadership characteristics, but those are not the drivers of leadership effectiveness. Instead, the research showed that the most effective leaders are characterized by these two traits: being inwardly sound and being others-focused.
Tim Spiker summarizes that discovery in this way: “¾ of your effectiveness as a leader comes from who you are, not what you do.” This discovery really resonated with me when I initially read it, and it was confirmed for me as I reflected on my experiences with leaders in all spheres of my life.
Each of us has responsibilities to lead in our lives. As you reflect on your leadership, are you inwardly sound? Are you others focused? Often, when we think about developing our skills, we think about what we do and how to enhance our abilities to do those tasks or responsibilities, not about who we are. I’d challenge you to think about investing in developing who you are and even prioritizing development on the “who” over the “what”!
One aspect of being inwardly sound and a way to invest in who you are is by becoming increasingly holistically healthy. Are you holistically healthy? How healthy are you in each of the following aspects of your life: physical, financial, intellectual, vocational, mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual? Are there specific areas where you are struggling or where you feel a need to improve?
My experience is that becoming increasingly healthy in each area of life is a journey, and the journey is often characterized by a road with many bumps, turns, and detours. Three steps forward on the road to improved health in an area can easily be offset by two steps back! In December 2023, I really increased my focus on improving my physical health, and I realized positive results over the next several months. Now, as I assess where I am on that physical health journey a year later, it feels like the progress I made early in 2024 is a distant memory, and I need to refocus again on improving my physical health!
To help mitigate that regression experience, Tim Spiker emphasizes the importance of establishing disciplines or habits in order to realize consistent progress in the holistically healthy journey. I believe it is beneficial to select just one or two areas to focus on, be specific about what results you would like to achieve in that area, and then establish the specific disciplines, habits, or lifestyle changes required to realize the improved results. It can also be very beneficial to identify someone to help you on the journey – a coach, a mentor, or an accountability partner to check in with you periodically.
So, here’s your challenge: Reflect on where you need to improve in your journey to become more holistically healthy. Maybe it’s your physical health, maybe it’s your spiritual health, your mental health, or your financial health. Select one or two areas of life you will focus on in the next month to improve, identify the result you want in each, and share those with someone who can help you on that journey. This investment in who you are will have a positive impact on your leadership, and it will increase your effectiveness in doing what you need to deliver each day and in each sphere of your life!