Be Disciplined

13 - Discipline

Although it is easy to act impulsively or self-indulge haphazardly, you must exercise discipline to be effective in your leadership role. It takes courage to show restraint, discipline, and control your own mind. You must both demonstrate and execute these principles. They must become so ingrained as a habit that they overcome any sense of fear, obstruction, or distraction. This can separate the good from the great. There are many ways to embrace and show discipline throughout your leadership role.

What Does Discipline Look Like?

A Schedule or Routine. Having a schedule or regular routine gives a direction and a plan that is expected or anticipated. It is a timeframe and agenda that can be relied upon by you and others as well. It provides dependability upon a standard set for accountability and the expectancy of others.
A Standard of Behavior. Self-discipline may include a certain behavior or demeanor that is predictable and assuring. People can count on you to be levelheaded and calm in handling situations. You display self-control and admirably present yourself when processing a situation or event, whether past, present or anticipated future. You can be expected to act in the same professional way, whether under favorable or unfavorable conditions. You show restraint from overreacting.
Patience. It takes great patience to wade through the volume of information you face daily. Whether human interactions, communication sources such as phone calls, texts, or emails, or situational sources such as heavy traffic or challenging obstacles. Discipline is having the patience to absorb all stimuli and compartmentalize them into manageable segments. It takes a lot of patience to successfully manage people of differing backgrounds and each interaction they bring to the table. As a disciplined leader, you portray forbearance and tolerance as you seek to address the needs of your business, employees, and family.
Organization. To be effective and productive in your pursuits, you must be physically and mentally organized. Very little will be accomplished if there isn’t a constructive and well-defined plan in place. Being organized allows your business to run smoothly, more efficiently, and in a more cost-favorable manner. Mentally, your mind must be decluttered from unprocessed thoughts. Take time to care for their abundance and process them as well.
Teamwork. Working together as a team in a unified endeavor provides energizing and copious benefits. Integrating multiple people into a cohesive unit takes time, effort, and discipline with like-minded goals and visions. Coordinating your team of associates provides consistency and balance within your corporation and can only be attained with self-discipline. There is value in working together for a common goal.
Mission and Vision. It is important to know the heart of the company and what it stands for. A clearly defined mission will lay the groundwork for the business’s current undertakings, while the vision will provide a long-term destination, which should guide all predefined goals. Discipline will provoke establishing a mission and vision statement for the organization's direction.
Goal or Plan. Every journey needs some type of GPS or navigation system to avoid confusion or the risk of getting lost in the process. A disciplined leader will have both a company and personal business plan or goal on the road to success. You will never take all the necessary steps along the way if you do not have a clearly defined goal of attainment. And you will never know what success is if your goals remain undefined. You must know what you are striving for and toward.
Management. If there is chaos, there is no discipline. Discipline looks like a well-run establishment. There will be order and respect in a two-way fashion between administration and support personnel. The team will be fueled by mutual respect for each other, including ancillary staff or janitorial services. A pleasant atmosphere will confirm the organization's cohesion and make evident the overseer's discipline.
Achievement. There will be evidence of achievement, whether by obvious prosperity or by the successful unity of the team. Success will result from proper discipline and management.
Strength and Courage. It takes strength to make difficult choices despite adversity and to choose the right thing. The right way isn’t always the most popular or the most comfortable one. However, a disciplined person is courageous enough always to make tough yet right decisions. Sometimes the best answer must be no.