2. Know Thyself
Who are you? It's nothing to do with your name or where you live or what you do. Who are you in your heart?
"Know thyself."
This philosophical maxim was famously inscribed on the ancient Greek temple of Apollo at Delphi, at least 2,500 years ago.
If you want to succeed as a leader, you must start with yourself. If you don’t understand yourself and what makes you tick then you can’t understand anyone else, and if you don’t understand them, you can’t lead them. It really is as simple as that.
Knowing yourself isn’t about your name, or where you live, or what you do for a living, or what football team you support. It’s about your values, your beliefs, your strengths and weaknesses, your hopes and fears, your dreams and aspirations. In short, it’s about who you are in your heart.
When you’re taking your first steps into leadership, this is where you must begin.
Throughout your leadership career you will learn more and more about yourself. These lessons will be extremely valuable both in your personal life and in your professional career. As you become more self-aware and more confident in yourself, you will behave ever more authentically. When you know yourself, in every situation you’ll show up as yourself and not as an actor playing a role. If there’s one thing that most inspires followers it’s authenticity: integrity, honesty and the absence of bullshit.
Here is our first close parallel with personal development. It, too, starts with the same question: “who are you?”
Incidentally, there were three maxims inscribed on the temple of Apollo. The other two were “everything in moderation” and “make a pledge and trouble is at hand.” I will leave it to you to figure out their meaning and relevance to you as a leader in the modern world.