Having passion for your work as a leader can help you build more engaged and resilient teams. It contributes to how you become an inspiring leader.

Throughout my Talent Development career, I’ve spent a good chunk of my time building various training programs to upskill employees. The most requested topics around leadership are often generic topics like “How to Provide and Receive Constructive Feedback,” “How to Develop Your Team,” etc.

While these skills are crucial for every leader, they don’t answer the questions that almost all leaders encounter throughout their careers at some point – How do I sustain my team’s engagement and resilience levels over time? How do I keep them motivated and focused on achieving our goals as a team?

Connect to Your Strengths and Values

Of course, there are many contributing factors to increase team engagement and resilience. However, many of these factors come down to how you can become an inspiring leader for others.

In my opinion, many of us don’t take enough time to reflect on the passions that we have for what we do. To become the leader that everyone wants to follow, it’s important that you show up as your authentic self, and connect with why you do what you do and how your actions align with your strengths and values.

Through this self-reflection, you can start to cultivate more passion for your work and begin to communicate that to the others around you as well.

So how do we connect with our strengths and values? Take some time to reflect on the six questions below and see what you uncover! If you find that the way you work currently does not align with your values and strengths, how can you adjust your actions going forward?

How to Connect to Your Values and Strengths:

1. Think about a time when you felt really good at work. What values were being honored?
2. Think about a time when you didn’t feel so great. What values were being challenged?
3. Think about a time when your boundaries have been pushed and you compromised your values. What led to it?
4. Think about a time when you have accomplished a goal. What are some of your strengths that led you to that goal?
5. Think about some goals you have in life. Why are these goals important to you?
6. How can you leverage your values and strengths to accomplish these goals? 

Being an Authentic Leader

Once you start to identify how your actions and leadership style align with your values and strengths, you will start to cultivate more passion for your work and bring a higher level of energy to your team. It is one of the many ways that you can become the authentic leader that you aspire to be.

How have you cultivated more passion for your life?

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