One of the things that has helped my leadership development is the realisation that Man is essentially a Spirit that has a Soul and lives in a body. What this means is that Man is a 3 dimensional being and how aligned you are in the three dimensions impact and influence how well you lead.
The three dimensions include:
Spirit
Soul
Body
The three dimensions are interrelated, hence they must be balanced for you to successfully lead. An imbalance in one dimension will show or affect another dimension – including the result or outcome of your life.
Can we look at each dimension briefly?
- The Spiritual Dimension – Your Spirit provides leadership to your life. The Spiritual dimension is your core, your commitment to your value system. It is a very private area of your life but a supremely important one. You need to constantly improve, refine and enhance the spiritual dimension through daily prayers, meditation and immersion into great literature and music. It is very important. Your soul takes direction from the content of your spirit. If your motives and values are wrong, nothing can be right.
Martin Luther said “I have so much to do today, I’ll need to spend another hour on my knees”
To Martin Luther, prayer is not a mechanical duty, but a source of power in releasing and multiplying his energies.
Prayer is a chief task of a leader. Prayer keeps the leader focused. The leadership we provide which no one sees may be more important than what we do in public. Followers think of leadership in terms of the visible but in reality, leadership is like an iceberg; most of it lies unseen.
If we are to lead, we must refine our spirit through prayers, through fellowship. - The Mental Dimension
How your mind is shaped determines how your leadership is shaped. Most of our mental development and study discipline comes from formal education but as soon as we leave the external discipline of school, many of us let our minds wither or decline. We don’t do any more serious reading, we don’t explore new subjects in any real depth outside our action fields, we don’t think analytically, we don’t write.
Education, continuing education, continually honing and expanding the mind – is vital mental renewal. Sometimes this will involve the external discipline of the classroom or systematised study programs but most often it doesn’t.
There is simply no better way to inform or expand your mind on a regular basis than to get into the habit of reading good books. Let’s be serious. Books cannot be replaced in this fast changing world of short forms of content. With books you can get into the best minds that are now or that have ever been in the world.
Refining the mental dimension does not have to be complex. Start with a book a month, then move to a book every 2 weeks then a book every week. Develop your ability to read deeply and widely.
Remember, the person who doesn’t read is no better off than the person who can’t read.
Let me also, based on my experience, that writing is another powerful way to sharpen the mental dimension. Keeping a journal of your thoughts, experiences, insights and learnings promotes mental clarity, exactness and context.
Writing good letters like this every week, communicating my thoughts, feelings and ideas on a deeper level by writing improves my ability to think clearly, to reason accurately and to be understood effectively.
Consider writing weekly or daily.
- The Physical Dimension – involves caring effectively for our physical body by eating the right kinds of food, getting sufficient rest and relaxation, and exercising on a regular basis.
Studies have shown consistently that exercise is one of the high leverage activities that most of us don’t do consistently because it is not urgent and because we don’t do it, sooner or later, we will find ourselves dealing with health problems that come as a natural result of neglect.
Most of us think we don’t have enough time to exercise our body, but study shows that you need 3-6 hours weekly or a minimum of 30 minutes a day. A good exercise program is one that you can do in your own home and one that will build your body in three areas: Endurance, Flexibility and Strength. There are some exercises that can be done at home to achieve that daily or weekly.
For example, aerobic exercise or cardio for endurance comes from the ability for your heart to pump blood through your body. Exercise like rapid walking, running, biking, jogging are beneficial. I dedicate at least 15 minutes every day to joging around my street.
Stretch exercise helps your body achieve flexibility. This can be achieved by simple push ups, sit ups or working with weights.
The essence of improving your body is to exercise on a daily basis in a way that will preserve and enhance your capacity to work, adapt and enjoy. Your mind needs a healthy body and your spirit lives in a body.
Do simple exercise that improves your body every day. 30 minutes a day is enough.
Spending one hour every day to improve the three dimensions sharpens your leadership edge. Invest this time every day improving the three dimensions. It will affect every decision, relation and improve the quality and effectiveness of every other hour of the day. As you improve in one dimension, you increase your ability in another dimension.
Start today!