….Real leaders don’t accept mediocrity – they constantly seek improvement. If you want to become a true standout as opposed to someone who has great potential my message is simple – become very intentional about bringing discipline to every area of your life. – Mike Myatt, Chief Executive Officer, N2growth . . . .
We were discussing this in a workshop that I was facilitating a couple of months ago. There were good questions back and forth together with agreements and disagreements. One disagreement centered on leaders who don’t show up on time for meetings, being last to arrive in the office in the morning and other matters that did not meet the discipline in leadership category.
There was one leader who arrived about 20 minutes before the class started. Those who arrived before him kind of gave him a smile that did not look sincere at all. I noticed it but did not say anything at that time. At the end of the day, when everyone had left, he came up to me and confided his challenge in being a discipline leader.
I spent some time with him and learned a great deal about his personal life – he is married, wife works, has a daughter in primary 5, has worked for the company for 7 years and is looking forward to growing further in the company in a leadership role.
We then talked about his discipline issue. His challenge is time management and not being able to come to work on time. Furthermore, many a days, his daughter is sent to school late because he wakes up late and has to send her to school before coming to work. His daughter is usually unhappy because of his indiscipline.
He has tried many ways to waking up early and it works only once or twice and he is back to being late. His wife has given up waking him up because he gets angry with her. He confessed that he is looking for some guidance and is very serious about it because he does not want his daughter to be hurt and sad.
I asked him if he has ever asked his daughter to wake him up. The response was negative. Can he request that from her? He said he would try.
The result is in the past two months after our chat, he has been on time in sending off his daughter and being on time at work. He is a disciplined leader and a happy one too.
