Leading well is hard. Navigating the journey through the euphoria of high moments and victories also involves traversing the heartbreak of low points and failures. The good and bad are often interspersed moment-to-moment.

Your health as a leader is a key contributor to your team or organization’s ability to thrive. Our God-given calling and longevity hang on this. In the upcoming weeks as we walk through John’s book Unshakable Leader: The Simple Yet Amazing Power of Alignment, we want to propel leaders toward health.

The central key to this will be the concept of alignment. John gives a real-life parallel to illustrate this concept: His occasional visits to the chiropractor to help with neck and back pain. His practitioner states that chiropractic care allows for the following:

• The body to get more balanced and upright.
• The central nervous system can “efficiently facilitate communication between (the) brain and the rest of (the) body. When the spine is misaligned, (the) body is thrown off balance and is forced to work harder to compensate.”

Therefore, the more aligned we are, the physically healthier we become.

Your journey toward leadership health also begins with alignment. The more aligned you are personally, the healthier you and the organization, family, or team you lead gets. Personal alignment begins with you. According to John, “When we are aligned correctly in our personal lives, we’re able to handle leadership challenges with more energy, effectiveness, and resiliency.”

While the concept is simple, implementing it isn’t always. As we unpack the process over the next several weeks, it’s important to keep three big ideas in mind. These words will be utilized regularly and are the guiding principles for us on this journey.

Ownership. You own the degree of alignment in your life and are ultimately responsible for stewarding it. You cannot rely on your team, your friends, your board, or even your spouse to steward the level of personal alignment or misalignment in your life. Once you own this, it becomes easier to move toward health.

Network. A trusted network of people who speak into your life is crucial to maintaining alignment. It rarely, if ever, develops in a vacuum. Therefore, surround yourself with a robust network that should include your (spouse, if married), doctor, counselor, mentor or coach, and deep friendships to help you process life (again remembering that this network is not responsible for your alignment, but rather can assist you in learning how to obtain and maintain it).

Rhythm. Keep in mind that alignment isn’t the same thing as balance. The word balance evokes imagery of tiptoeing carefully with plates stacked high in each hand, fearful that one wrong move will create chaos. On the other hand, alignment requires an integrated set of rhythms such as work/rest, physical, spiritual, etc. This sense of rhythm keeps us moving along at a healthy and productive pace and protects us from the negative impacts of elongated stress.

Over the next few posts, we’ll break down the five components crucial for alignment, and you’ll see how these big ideas become so important to our long-term well-being and that of the organization or team (or family for that matter) that we lead.

“Bringing a better, less anxious, and more-aligned version of yourself to the people you lead is the most influential and catalytic behavior you bring to the table as a leader.”

We’re rooting and praying for you,

John & Jaime