Become the Real Deal

Regardless of people's business goals, whether they aspire to reach the highest levels of leadership or become influential within their own spheres, they must do what it takes to be viewed as the "real deal." Become the Real Dealby Connie Dieken takes people through the three layers of self development toward becoming sincere leaders in a world that lacks transparency.

There are three layers of the self that people must master if they want to become great leaders; inner presence, verbal presence, and outer presence. Some key points in understanding these layers are:

• People must invest time to understand who they are and establish their inner presences or they risk losing the ability to stay centered when they allow others to define them.
• Leaders with centered presences are good listeners. They recognize that not everything is about them and demonstrate a willingness to listen and learn from the ideas of others.
• People who are "worriers" should deal with the anxiety of perfectionism by shutting down their inner critic.
• People who are "egotists" need to work more on how they relate to other people to build trustworthy relationships. They are quick to shut other people down with negative comments.
• Those with strong, centered verbal presences think about how their messages will be received rather than focusing only on how these messages will be delivered.
• People who identify as "the mouse" need to focus on what other people say so they have more confidence when it is their time to make a contribution to the conversation.
• When leaders recognize the "motor mouth" trait in themselves, they need to ensure their messages are beneficial to the audience, rather than simply looking for an opportunity to speak.
• The outer presence is about how people respond to others based on what they see on the outside. This is established by facial expressions, tone, dress, and body language.
• "Ghosts" are people who lack an outer presence. They are rarely noticed in meetings due to their lack of contribution. They need to find their personal power and work to become more visible.
• "The pretender" personality types are often overbearing around other people. They can change this impression of themselves by admitting to mistakes and listening to others.