Week 46: Eagle Source
Make A Difference…The Choice is Yours
Congratulations on reaching the last month of the Eagle Teams Peer Group Experience. You have done well completing this leadership journey and hopefully, you have already put into practice much of what is available through Make a Difference.
Now, we want to turn to an important question:
What is your vision for growing as a leader long-term?
Relationship Categories
It was Benjamin Franklin who once said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” None of us desire to fail as leaders, so let’s look to our future and plan for it by creating a vision of being stronger and more effective leaders in the lives of those we love, live with, and lead. To create this leadership vision, let’s look at three categories of relationships in our lives:
1) Foundational Relationships
Foundational Relationships represent the most important relationships in our lives. They set the tone for our personal success or failure and must be our priority above all others. They can be family members or our closest work associates and mentors. Fulfilling every aspect of Make a Difference is critical in these relationships - they must be filled with trust and have a strong infrastructure.
2) Supporting Relationships
Supporting Relationships represent relationships that are important to our career and personal success or failure. These relationships exist at different levels of completion of Make a Difference. These relationships may come and go, and may be less significant family members, close friends, or work associates. If we fail to develop these relationships well, we might miss out on important personal and career development.
3) Beneficial Relationships
Beneficial Relationships represent the short-term or less influential relationships in our life. Like the beginning step of the Relationship Triangle, these relationships are marked with respect, but developing trust or infrastructure isn’t required. Building our leadership in these relationships mutually benefits them and us.
Reflection Questions
Think of the following questions and identify your Relationship Categories:
Who are your Foundational Relationships (life-long relationships)? List them by name.
Who are some of your Supporting Relationships (career and personal)? List them by name.
Who are some of your Beneficial Relationships (short-term or less influential relationships)? List them by name.
Remember, in creating a vision for life-long leadership, the question isn’t, “who are the people in each category in your life?” The real question is: How are you planning to make a difference in the lives of those you love, live with, and lead every single day? Make your plan TODAY!
Higher Flight
Remember to use your Eagle Teams Digital Notebook to document your thoughts and insights.
