Improving your Leadership Skills is a never ending process!I have been in a leadership role for over thirty-five years and I am still learning new leadership skills everyday! It sounds like double speak when you hear people say things like I just said, but for me it is as true as it could ever be. The day I stop learning is the day I need to crawl into a pine wooden box and throw dirt on me, because my life will be over. Over the years I have been to every type of leadership skills training class you can imagine. I must say that there are some really good ones that I have attended. On the other hand there are some equally bad ones also. In either case I have tried to come away with something from all of them. However, the best lessons learned for me have always been real life experiences. As an example just recently one of my sons who has schizophrenia was placed on a twenty four hour hold be the local police department for calling 911 because he thought that someone was trying to assassinate him. In his mind it was as real. He was terrified. On the flip side of the coin he had a tremendous fear of being confined against his will in a locked mental ward. I met him in the hospital as they were initially processing him to take him to the locked ward. During this time I was able to talk him through two shots and drawing blood. The skills I learned in a twenty four hour period were immeasurable. In a short twenty four hours I was able to work with the doctors, nurses, and my son to arrange for his release, while getting him to agree to take a shot once per month, and go to counseling. This was not possible just a week earlier. As leaders, whether in the home or the business world, we must seize the opportunity to make lemonade out of lemons. I learned in that very short time that leadership skills come in all shapes and sizes. In my sons case he was convinced about several things during his twenty four hour hold. One of them was that the shots that were being given to him contained a poison that would kill him. I was able to talk him through the process assuring him he would be ok. When he finally received his first shot you could just see the relief in his body when he didn't die. He even turned and gave the nurse that injected the medicine a hug in relief. This has never happened. What put the icing on the cake was for the first time he uttered the words I love you Dad! I couldn't have received a better reward! Life presents us with all types of issues every single day that we can either complain about or turn into something good. That is what good leadership skills are! Not leaning forward and performing active listening! No, good leadership skills are earned through the school of life and very few times in the actual classroom. I have learned my share of skills through tough and painful times; however, I wouldn't trade even one of them for what I learned going through it. Thank you and May God Bless You!
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