Claiming Your Seat in Life, Family, Relationships, and Work
Every one of us sits on a personal leadership throne, whether we acknowledge it or not. The question isn’t if you’re a leader, but how consciously do you carry the roles that make up your life. Leadership isn’t limited to corner offices or big titles. It’s the daily act of showing up with intention for yourself, your people, and the world you influence.
Before setting goals, think about the roles in your life, start there. Roles then goals.
1. Leader of Your Own Life – Power Up Your Calendar
Before we lead teams, families, or organizations, we must lead the person in the mirror. That requires clarity, discipline, and a willingness to confront the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable. Are we open to or aware of our “Blind Spots”? Your first throne is personal leadership: managing energy, habits, health, and mindset. This is the space where life-work balance is forged not through perfection, but through conscious choices.
The one thing that we all use, no change or new software required, is our Calendar. Leverage the Power of your Calendar by getting fun things on there. Start with you, then cascade through the other key relationships in your life.
2. Leader of Your Family – Ad Hoc or Intentional?
Family leadership is the quiet arena where character is truly measured. It’s in the listening, the availability, the modeling of values that are caught more than taught. Whether you’re raising children, supporting a partner, or caring for aging parents, this role demands presence not just physical, but emotional. The greatest leaders at home lead by example: humility, kindness, consistency, and love that doesn’t need applause. Hopefully, that is not what we are after.
3. Leader of Key Relationships – Any lost relationships worth resurrecting?
We all have relationships with friends, mentors, peers, and community members that shape our world. Strong leaders invest intentionally here. Relational leadership means being the person who deepens conversations, asks better questions, follows up, and shows up. It means recognizing that the quality of your relationships is the ceiling of the quality of your life. Influence grows not through authority, but through connection.
Consider hitting the “send” button, calling (not texting or emailing, or social media) to say hello to friends from the past.
4. Leader at Work
In the workplace, your leadership throne may be formal or informal. Either way, people are watching.
Effective work leadership blends vision, accountability, decision-making, and empathy. It is understanding when to drive results and when to develop people. It is shifting from “being the hero” to “building heroes.” The highest-level leaders step back enough to let others step up.
Do you know at least 3 things (outside of work) about each teammate?
Leadership isn’t one throne – it’s four.
And mastering each requires a different posture, a different strength, and a different level of awareness.
When you choose to lead yourself, your family, your relationships, and your work with intention, you become the kind of leader others naturally follow.