What is the importance of leadership skills in personal development

1. What is the importance of leadership skills in personal development? This is a story about the long process of personal development and what is needed to achieve our dreams My name is Steven Jackson and I was born in a city in the south of England called Southampton. I enjoyed a pleasant childhood with my mother, father and a younger brother. On the whole I remember that life was happy and most of the time we had enough money. I can’t remember a situation when we were hungry even though I do recall my mother searching for coins in the kitchen draws so she could buy milk. Nowadays I put that memory down to the fact my mother is Scottish and as tight as a otter's pocket. On the other hand, school was not so good. I was not a great pupil, but I managed to scrape through with passes and unbelievably gained an apprenticeship in metalwork for a local company. I think my dark sense of humour came from them years, which I still have a bit today even though I have been away from that life for many years. However, I have fond memories and friendships that still endure today. My apprenticeship years seemed to move slowly until a friend of a friend asked me to join his band. I didn’t realise it then, but it was a key point in my journey or that something that allow us to say “I can be more than I am” rather than just vegetating into the same old existence. Even then I dreaded becoming my father and that is not to say that he was not a successful person in his own right, but to aspire to be another 9 to 5 employee was something I really did not want.

2. The years went by and I completed my apprenticeship, I purchased a house with a girlfriend and was enjoying playing the band circuit, but I was still in my mind missing something, even though I couldn’t see what it was at the time. So, I decided to return to school by starting an Open University degree course, which as I found was right out of my comfort zone, but being out of my comfort zone gave me the strength to pursue goals outside my normal social circle. The power of small examples of personal goals in life The strange thing about personal development, once someone starts achieving some forms of success there is always a negative outcome. It is not always visible at the start, but somehow I believe it is an inevitable process in life. Sometimes to succeed and to gain leadership growth and development we need to leave some of our personal baggage behind. The personal baggage for me was my long-term

3. girlfriend. We had not been getting on for a while and the more personal success I was achieving the further apart our relationship became. I realised that I needed to change everything in my life. The same year my long term girlfriend and I split, life became a bit crazy with angry exchanges about money and who owned what. In retrospect, the ending of our relationship was the best thing for me even if it was not for her. I felt freer in setting life goals and moving forward into the next stage of my existence. So, in 1991 I decided to make a trip to Rome, Italy to reboot my life and have time to think over a few things on what I wanted to do next. In my opinion, independent travel gives the mind time to reflect on decisions one has made in life with the realisation that our future has only oneself to consider. At the same time there is no-one to blame if everything goes wrong and in some ways that was very liberating to know that the choices I make will decide my fate. While in Rome I met my future wife, she was then a confident and self assured individual from Finland and even though she was not the full reason for being successful she was an important motivation to be successful in something. Nevertheless, success as I realised quite quickly needs to be a personal journey absence of others opinions because finally it was me and only me that was going to decide whether or not I was going to be successful. Success is examples of personal goals in life and arguably is the starting point of our real journey So after a few years of being married, having a child together and living together in the UK we decided to move to Finland. The UK was not working for us at the time, unemployment was high and the general lack of opportunities was becoming an issue, so we sold everything and moved to Finland with a suitcase each and about £250. At the start, life was difficult, I couldn’t speak Finnish, I couldn’t find a job and it was really lonely, I have to say the loneliness was terrible. After about 8 – 10 months culture shock kick in, everything seems to be darker and harder than it really was, fortunately my wife understood what the problem was because she had been through a similar situation herself in the UK, but at the time I didn’t understand.

4. I can remember when we finally got a city apartment, all we had was a bed for our daughter, a second hand TV and one lamp. We were sitting on the floor eating ready made roast chicken from a bag to the light of the TV set. Slowly we purchased a bed for us, a kitchen table and chairs that made everything slightly more homely and my wife was working so we were bring in some extra money. Overtime, we managed to make the apartment our home and I have to say that I felt a sense of achievement. We had arrived in Finland with nothing and somehow we made things work, which seemed like a turning point for me. It became apparent that I could not continue being the house husband and child carer while my wife worked, even though I quite enjoyed seeing my daughter grow up and being at home when she returned from school. To rectify this situation, one quiet Monday morning when everyone was gone, I made my action plan and personal goals for work with the intention of getting a job in Finland. Fortunately, that day a letter fell into the letterbox with an offer of a 8 month Finnish language course paid for by the state. This happened to be number one on my action plan.

5. This is how my action plan started Here are some examples of personal goals in life that I went through to get a job in Finland. Learn Finnish ● Start a Finnish course ✓ ● Use Finnish everyday ✓ ● Learn Finnish ✓ Return to school ● Apply to enroll for a degree ✓ ● Start a degree course ✓ ● Pass the degree 3.5 years ✓ Get a job ● First job can be anything degree related ✓ ● Once I have a job, find a better job until I find the one I am content with ✓ So, putting it even more simply Learn Finnish, go to school and get a job in that order and do it all in 3.5 years. Of course, nothing ever goes to plan, because as I found, nobody can learn Finnish in 3.5 years. However, I was using the Finnish language on a daily basis and even studying in Finnish which was a nightmare in itself. The main problem or maybe shock for me was that my action plan was completed far too fast and of course that is not a bad thing. I know that I would complete my action plan, but I didn’t know that I would want something more than I had achieved. I am guessing it took me about 5 years before I said to myself, “I really need something more than a 9 to 5 job” even though I have to say I was quite happy with my life on the whole. However I really needed something more, but what? Achieving my working life goals had create a feeling that anything was possible, anything could be achieved if only I had a vehicle that would give me the income and freedom I desired.

6. Achieving success and personal development in business One option that came to mind was running a home based business. I had look at MLM many years before when my wife had been quite successful in a network marketing business in the UK. I had some knowledge and I felt that I really could be successful, regardless what type of business or product was involved. The main reason I like the idea of network marketing is because it was affordable, I could work while I learnt and I could do it from home while I was working a regular job. So, searching the internet I researched many different business opportunities from tech products, weight loss products and wellness products until I found the company I thought could work for me. The characteristic I was looking for was: ● Low startup cost ● Free webshop and marketing tools ● Free online admin ● No monthly fee ● A small enough product that would travel easily

7. ● And the possibility to run the business online from anywhere in the world where there is the internet Finally after weeks of researching I found the company that completed my bucket list and gave me the opportunity to become successful. Any personal development in business needs an action plan: Taken action ● Join a business (The company was called Doterra) ✓ ● Teach myself internet marketing, web page development and anything else needed to improve my chances of success in network marketing (Self taught and some online courses) ✓ ● Create a system that enrolls new consultant automatically (Blog marketing and landing page marketing) ✓

8. ● Create a system that sales the products automatically (Blog marketing and landing page marketing) ✓ ● Create a system that emails my warm leads automatically (Email auto reply system) ✓ ● Set leadership development goals (Work always in progress) Set Goals ● Make enough money to relocate to Spain during the winter and live in Finland during the summer in 4 – 5 years (So close I can taste it) ● Earn enough to live in Spain during the winter and live in Finland during the summer in 4 – 5 years (So close I can taste it) ● Build large Doterra team (Enroll 20 a month) in 6 – 12 months ✓ ● Develop leadership goals and objectives for four team leaders ✓ ● Teach other to develop their own online method of marketing the Doterra business ✓ ● Achieve top leadership ranks in Doterra ✓ ● Move to Spain for 6 month in 2019 Work on my business everyday ● 4 to 6 hours a day ✓ ● 1 to 2 hours on weekends ✓ ● Holidays 1 to 2 hours depending on situation, but always 30 minutes just in case ✓ Collaborations and leadership One important aspect of being a leader is the ability to collaborate with others in our team regardless if they are our upline or downline and even in some case someone outside of our team. During 2018, Shari Soelberg and myself have been working on an existing project called "Do Essential Chat with S & S" which is a podcast that discusses everything Doterra and their business opportunity. The main goal for the podcast was to educate our teams and brand ourselves in the process, however for me it has become more than that. I have found that the podcasts have become as much a educational platform for me as much as it is for my team and our listener. If you wish to listen to our podcast or be a guest click on the podcast button below:

9. Achievements so far…. ● I have a downline of 600+ to date (between 16 and 30 new consultants a month) ● Income increasing all the time ● At the moment, I believe I am moving forward at a satisfactory rate, but I still feel I need to do something to push up the pace. However, compared to many of my business colleges I have moving very fast, so I guess it is perspective rather than reality. ● Creating a successful podcast ● I am happy to say that I am achieving everything I committed myself to and believe that I will achieve my other goals in due time. Personal mindset and examples of life goals I would like to say that in many ways I am the same person I was 20 years ago or even 5 years ago, but in many ways I am not. I have lost something of the happy go lucky in myself and exchange it for the desire for success. I have become very driven and have found that I find it difficult to understand why others in this business as well as my personal life are not as driven as I am. I have often wondered how other see their own success because the excitement of success itself has become as powerful as my original goals. The ability to make life choices irrespective of what that maybe is a powerful motivator. However, returning to the true aspect of what makes us successful against failure, is simply that point in time when we physically and psychologically take action and choose to be successful. Yes, it is a mindset and personal reboot that we have to work on everyday, but very achievable for anyone who wants success in their lives. However, the second we express an opinion that it can’t be done we are sending a message of doubt to ourselves and declining the chances of success. I have found that creating small personal successes, daily mindset reboots and reflecting on the ​importance of leadership skills in my business is a way of helping influence myself that everything is achievable.

10. How do we begin to embrace the leadership role in life and in business and be successful? This is a difficult question and it has taking me some time to resolve it, this doesn't mean I am totally confident in what i have found or even believe I can achieve it. However I try to start my day by asking these questions of myself. ● What will I eat today? ● Will I go to the gym? ● How positive will I be? ● How much work will I do on my business? ● How will I speak to my partner? ● Will I call a friend? ● How much will I socialise with friends? ● Will I be excited about life? ● Will I be happy with my relationships? ● Will I be happy with my life? ● Will I go to bed early enough? Leaderships and success is in this list, because success without supporting other parts of our lives will create an unsuccessful future. So, as financial freedom move forever closer I have also needed to work on other parts of my life. Arguably, personal success such as relationships and personal wellness is more difficult to achieve than business success and of course a different type of leadership. Changing a lifetime of unhealthy living or a history of toxic behaviour in our personal relationships forges an unpredictable and dysfunctional future. However, as with business success being a choice, personal successes are also choices because at the end of the day we are all looking for one thing and that is a happiness. I don’t believe my journey will be ever over, because there will always be something to achieve or aim for in life but that is how life should be. I have taken my leadership role with passion and a massive sense of humour so regardless of the challenges I have on a daily basis I know I will find a solution. Personally I try to aspire to leaderships skill that reflect my values I have already in my personal and business life, such as:

11. ● Honesty and Integrity: No real success is possible if we can not be trusted by our colleagues and friends ● Confidence: To be an effective leader, we should be confident enough to ensure that other follow our lead ● Be a communicator: My method of communicating is slightly different than many however regardless of that until we clearly communicate our vision it will be difficult to achieve success. ● Commitment and Passion: I have always been passionate about my business however sometime it difficult for our teams to see that part of us, so presenting yourself online and live or on a podcast will present a image of who you really are. ● Creativity and Innovation: As Steve Jobs said: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” From the start I have shared Doterra very differently from everybody else bar a few who see the internet as I do, as an extension of our physical self I have just selected five of my personal favorites, but there are many more leaderships skills such as, Inspire Accountability, Delegation and Empowerment, and Empathy. So, if you want to become successful and you want to learn the importance of leadership skills in one of the fastest growing home based businesses around at the moment - ​Click here​ or PM me and I will get back to you asap..... Others, Decision-Making Capabilities,