The 5 Pillars Of Self-Mastery Necessary For High-Performance Leadership

Written by: Sara Mueller, Executive Contributor

Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.

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If your organization is like most, your management team has had some success. They’ve generated good results and from the outside appear to be star players. But, from your inside view, you recognize your leaders are not yet functioning as a high-performance team.

Maybe necessary conflicts are being avoided or output is inconsistent or retention and engagement of their teams are low. Maybe burnout or gossip or emotional outbreaks are derailing progress. Your leaders have been through many leadership trainings, but something seems to be missing. That something that is holding your leadership team back from high performance is self-mastery.

I define self-mastery as the wisdom to know and manage yourself so you can effectively lead others. Self-mastery is about having the self-awareness and relationship skills to be a highly functioning human being. These skills are not taught in most schools or MBA programs. These skills come from the wisdom of personal growth and transformation and are the keys to greater impact, balance, and joy in both our personal and professional lives.

There are five essential pillars to self-mastery: Mindset of success, emotional intelligence, communication for connection, power over limiting beliefs, and resilience. Let’s dive into the characteristics of each one to determine whether or not they are present in you and your leaders.

1 Mindset of Success

You understand that you, and you alone, are responsible for all the outcomes of your life. You don’t make excuses and you don’t blame others for your results. You step out of the victim role and recognize that you are the creator of your life and every challenge is figure-out-able. You stay in the present, giving your time and energy only to those things you have control over. You surround yourself with only positive associations, monitoring what you read, watch, listen to, and the five people you spend the most time with.

2 Emotional Intelligence

You learn how to feel your feelings since most of us were taught when we were children to ignore, numb, or hide what we were naturally feeling. You embrace your feelings as messengers so you can make better decisions and avoid emotional outbursts in the near or very far future. You know how to effectively manage the emotions of your team by understanding what motivates them and solving for the greatest human need after basic food, shelter, and security: Validation (or to be seen, heard, and understood).

3 Communication For Connection

You listen to understand rather than to reply. You validate others rather than needing to fix or solve every problem. You empower your team to identify their own solutions rather than be dependent on you. You easily see other’s point of view, knowing that it will always be different from your own since we all have our own belief systems and experiences that impact the way we view the world. You focus on the neutral facts of the situation rather than the stories you create in your head. You have the training and courage to navigate necessary tough-love conversations.

4 Power Over Limiting Beliefs

You understand that generational beliefs and childhood experiences shaped your beliefs about yourself and the world by the time you were seven years old. You have identified and deconstructed the top limiting beliefs that have been creating unproductive patterns in your professional, personal and relational abilities. You are aware of your egoic tendencies and unhealthy defense mechanisms that are triggered by these false beliefs. You have the mindfulness to spot your untrue beliefs when they surface and choose an empowered way of being instead.

5 Resilience

You have learned from all your mistakes and failures and now use that wisdom as one of your greatest leadership skills to inspire others. You have forgiven yourself and others for past mistakes so you no longer carry emotional baggage. You set appropriate boundaries with yourself and others. You see failures as necessary steps on the ladder of success. You understand that change only happens when the costs of staying the same are greater than the payoffs you get for staying the same. You build new neural pathways of resilience and success to keep growing into your full human potential.

When your leadership team embraces all five of these self-mastery pillars, not only will performance, productivity, and morale skyrocket at your organization, but your leaders will raise their success set point in every other area of their life, from their relationships and parenting to their finances and physical health. Self-mastery is the path to greater impact, balance, and joy.

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Sara Mueller, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine

Sara Mueller believes we CAN have it all. She helps leaders develop emotional intelligence, resilience, and high performance so they can balance an impactful career AND a meaningful family life. After being burnt out in her career and hitting rock bottom in her marriage, Sara realized that her limiting beliefs and unproductive patterns were blocking joy and success in all areas of her life. So, she underwent an intense journey of self-discovery learning how to own her authentic power, presence, and purpose. She now teaches the key learnings of her transformation in her Self-Mastery Method coaching and leadership programs. Prior to becoming a Success Mentor, Sara spent nearly two decades developing optimization training programs for Fortune Global 500 executives while also teaching mindfulness and yoga to people from all walks of life. She’s a certified Conscious Parenting Coach and is regularly regarded as “life-changing,” “eye-opening,” and “one of the most engaging facilitators I’ve ever seen” by her beloved clients.