Because Social Leadership Daily is about being ‘in practice’, we regularly move into Action Days, and today is one of those days. And it’s about saying ‘No’.
It’s easy to imagine that being a ‘Social’ Leader means doing everything for everyone, or just being nice, or kind, but that’s not the case: Social Leadership describes the location of our leadership - at the intersection of formal and social systems - as much as it does the behaviour and style of it.
Social Leaders trade in social currencies, for sure - currencies of trust, belief, kindness, pride, and so on, but perhaps one of the things they also do is help find clarity - and sometimes clarity comes with a ‘no’.
Saying ‘no’ is hard: sometimes we avoid it, sometimes we dilute it, and sometimes we go the other way and shout it! But ‘no’ is important, and constructive, because it makes our boundaries and efforts clear, and enables others to find clarity too.
Use your sixty seconds today ‘in action’ - to think about a time, today, that you will say ‘no’, and how you do so.
Saying ‘no’, like any other skill, is changeable, adaptable, learnable. So use today to ask yourself if you aways get it right, or indeed if you ever do it at all.
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