In his new book, IDENTITY LEADERSHIP: To Lead Others You Must First Lead Yourself (Center Street; Publication Date: May 7, 2019; ISBN: 1546083375; $27.00), bestselling author Steadman Graham presents insights on how to become a purposeful and meaningful leader.
Through a combination of stories about inspiring visionaries, research and data, personal anecdotes, and a summary of identity leadership key points, he illustrates that embracing one's strengths and talents is essential to identity leadership. "Self-leadership is the most critical aspect of identity leadership and simply put, if you want to lead others, you have to learn how to lead yourself first," Graham notes. "I say that to people, and oftentimes I get a quizzical look in return. I can see the question in their eyes: 'Lead myself? Isn't that an automatic thing that just happens? What does that even mean?' Self-leadership, at its core, is understanding who you are."
The Chairman and CEO of S. Graham & Associates, a management and marketing consulting firm, and the author of 11 books, including two New York Timesbestsellers, Graham has cultivated a reputation for helping organizations and business entities make revolutionary changes for greater success. A podcaster and a popular public speaker on the topics of identity and self-awareness, Graham believes in the power of education and positive thinking and his own life is indicative of this philosophy. The Army veteran and former professional basketball player-a career he says largely defined him for many years-is now a noted expert in the fields of education and leadership development. "For most of my career, I have guided people through the process of clarifying their passions, purpose, and plans to align their visions for their lives with their realities," Graham notes. "For more than 30 years, I have been writing books, teaching in colleges, working in communities, leading nonprofits, and conducting workshops around the world and in all that time, I have come to know one thing: leadership is everything."
On the journey to self-leadership and ultimately, identity leadership, Graham says it's necessary to transform your thinking and move from a follower to a leader; from a consumer to a producer; and from a slave to an owner. To do this, he says, one must break free of the labels and barriers that are used in society to constrict us and put us in a box and that jobs, religion, race, gender, relationships, and the like should not define who we are.
"Early in life I let people define me by my race because I came from a place that 'nothing good came out of,'" Graham says. "I had two developmentally disabled brothers. I was an athlete. Though tests showed I had a high IQ, I was an average student with poor study habits. I heard all this, I took it all in, and it confused me. I wanted more out of life, I wanted to make something of myself but I didn't know what. I couldn't make plans for my life because I had no concept of what I was or what I was capable of or even what I wanted to do, beyond basketball. But over time, through a lot of trial and error, a lot of reading and soul searching, I did find out who I was. I figured out where I wanted to go. And I made a plan for how I was going to get there."
Over the course of his career, Graham has helped people explore and understand their identity through a multi-pronged clarification process that allows them to discover what matters to them and what drives them. He also stresses that the world is impacted and changed by leaders, not followers. "Identity leadership is the highest order of leadership-the kind of leadership required in the twenty-first century," he says. "Identity leaders are problem solvers, bridge builders, and people connectors. They take full advantage of the new opportunities that are proliferating through the disruptive thinking taking place in industries and the wholesale changes that are occurring in essentially every sector around the globe. It's the identity leaders, who, indeed are changing the way we live."