How Do You Demonstrate Your Leadership

What we do and how we act, or react, is heard loud and clear. Our actions drown out the words we speak. VALID leadership describes this as demonstration. It is the external expression of our integrity. Integrity consists of everything we think, say, and do publicly and privately.

We demonstrate this with every breath we take. Our credibility is formed by our external expression of integrity. It is either developed or destroyed depending on our actions. Building credibility takes time and patience--losing it can take seconds.

It is much easier to preserve our credibility than to regain it. Regaining lost credibility is nearly impossible. I contend once it is breached, it is gone.

Two scriptures from the book of Proverbs express this perfectly. They are:

Proverbs 11:30 (MSG), A good life is a fruit-bearing tree; a violent life destroys souls.

Proverbs 29:19 (MSG), It takes more than talk to keep workers in line;mere words go in one ear and out the other.

Emotional Intelligence has this listed as Self-Regulation or Self- Management. The way we handle our emotions and reactions.

Preserving credibility is a key component to effective leadership in any field. All it takes is to think before we speak, or delay our reactions when faced with a crucial situation long enough to settle our emotions. When we master this our level of integrity will flow and we can build our credibility with others and become a VALID leader.

All scripture is from The Bible Gateway