I talk a lot to leaders about ‘old tapes.’ Old tapes are the things we tell ourselves about ourselves (I’m not good at x, I’m always late, I’m bad at public speaking) and what people say about us (he’s a hothead, she’s a control freak, they never hit deadlines). Tapes get recorded based on our actions. So, if you’ve laid down some tracks on your tapes that no longer serve you, not only do you have to change your actions, you also have to get other people to ‘hear’ the new song you’re singing. For ourselves, it means letting go of labels that we’ve embraced that no longer serve us. If you don’t want to be seen as a control freak or late, then start to work on fixing that behaviour. If you want other people to stop with old tapes, then you need to engage them in the process by sharing the behaviour you’re working and enlisting their help in supporting you in changing it simply by getting them to see the new behaviour. We can erase old tapes but it takes time, focus and commitment – from us and from the people around us who need to be willing to listen to the new song we’re singing.
#leadershiptruth
