Growth Instigators Hotline

#323 Leadership starts with you.

• Aaron Havens • Season 4 • Episode 323

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True leadership stems from self-awareness and emotional regulation, not strategy or tactics. When leaders lose emotional center through stress or frustration, they stop leading effectively and start creating negative experiences for their teams.

• Your ability to lead others directly correlates with understanding and regulating yourself
• Personal example of becoming short and negative when overwhelmed with unfinished tasks
• People remember how you made them feel more than what you actually said
• Pause before responding when emotions are high
• Leadership happens in the gap between emotional trigger and reaction
• Consider what tone you're setting and how it affects others
• Own your impact and circle back to repair when you miss the mark
• Emotional intelligence matters more than perfection

If your team struggles with reactive leadership or unclear tone, I help teams build emotional awareness and culture clarity. Visit growthinstigators.com to schedule a free discovery call, and please share this hotline with others to advocate for growth.


Speaker 0:

Leading well isn't about strategy, it's about self-awareness. Welcome to message 323 of the Growth Instigators Hotline, where we ignite your personal and professional development. I'm Aaron Havens, your host and growth coach. Winning Leadership Wednesday leading with emotional intelligence here's the one thing I want to lock in today. Your ability to lead others is directly tied to your ability to understand and regulate yourself. That's right. That's emotional intelligence. The moment you lose yourself in stress, ego, frustration or impulse, you stop leading and start reacting. Man, I'm guilty of this. How about you? And start reacting? Man? I'm guilty of this. How about you?

Speaker 0:

Gosh, just a couple days ago, my business partner had to have a little more patience with me because I was off center just a little. With a lot of moving parts, I found myself with tons of work not getting accomplished and carrying over into the next day, and for me, a dude that likes to accomplish, a dude that likes to finish, check things off my list, yeah, that's not an optimal situation. So I was short, negative, and I was making a lot of declaratives and most of them were negative. I was leading, frustrated because I was not centered. Yikes, time out, time to center, bro. Moments like this have taught me this. People will remember how you made them feel more than what you said. So here's a good reminder for all of us Pause before you respond. If your emotions are high, press pause.

Speaker 0:

Leadership often lives in the gap between trigger and reaction. Ask yourself what tone am I setting right now? Not just what you're doing, but how you're doing it. Are people walking away clearer or heavier? Quite honestly, and own your impact. If you miss it and we all do circle back repair matters more than perfection. Leadership starts with you.

Speaker 0:

Thank you for calling growth instigators hotline. I'd love to hear from you, leave a message after the beep or send an email to Aaron at growthinstigatorscom and let me know when have you noticed your emotional state impact others for better or for worse, and what's one way you can lead with more emotional intelligence this week, I'd love to hear what your thoughts on this and if your team is struggling with reactive leadership or unclear tone. I help teams build emotional awareness and culture clarity. Visit growthinstigatorscom and let's schedule a free discovery call. And also, can I ask this Would you ask two, three, four people to call this call today? That's right, I would love you to move from someone that just listens to an advocate or someone that's going to advocate for growth. Instigators, share this number. I'd love it and, as always, keep instigating growth in all you do.