Keystep Leadership

Articles

The ABCs of Leadership

By Alex ·

Have you ever felt like you could achieve much more than you are right now? Have you ever wanted to have a lasting, positive impact on the people around you: your family, your coworkers and your community? Have you ever found yourself enjoying supporting people and watching them thrive?

If any of that sounds like you, you might be wondering whether you’re ready to lead. In this article I’ll walk you through the ABCs of leadership, give you a quick self-check, and share one small step you can take today.

I’ve led people for over a decade. Along the way I’ve trained, coached and led more than a thousand people for Fortune 500 companies, built training and operational excellence programs from scratch, and worked side by side with senior executives. Here’s what I’ve learned: almost nobody feels fully ready, and readiness isn’t a feeling. It comes down to three basics: A is Awareness, B is Belief, and C is Calling. If you know your ABCs, you’re a leader.

Readiness isn’t a feeling you wait for. It’s three basics you can check.

A is for Awareness: lead yourself first

Before you can lead others excellently, you have to lead yourself excellently. That starts with awareness: noticing what you’re thinking, feeling and doing while it’s happening.

Most of us do that less than we assume. Harvard researchers Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert sampled thousands of people through the day and found their minds wandered in about 47% of moments, and wandering minds were less happy. Tasha Eurich’s research found that about 95% of people believe they’re self-aware, but only 10 to 15% actually fit the criteria.

Mastering your mind

Mindfulness is the bedrock. Meditation helps train it, but it isn’t the whole thing. Mastering your mind means choosing where your focus goes and acting on purpose instead of on autopilot, all day long.

Two simple tools help. The first is naming what you feel. In a brain-imaging study, Matthew Lieberman and colleagues found that putting a feeling into words reduced the response of the amygdala, a brain area tied to emotional reactions. Saying “I’m frustrated” gives you a moment to choose your response.

The second is deciding ahead of time. Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran reviewed 94 tests of “if-then” plans, like “If a meeting gets tense, then I’ll pause and ask a question.” These plans had a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals.

Choosing who you’ll be

Awareness also lets you choose your identity. Psychologist Daphna Oyserman’s research on identity-based motivation suggests that who we see ourselves as isn’t fixed. It shifts with context, and we lean toward actions that fit the identity on our mind. When something hard feels like “me,” we read the difficulty as a sign it matters, not that it’s impossible.

So when you’re aware, you can decide: “I’m someone who leads.” Then you take the actions that fit, and you manage yourself so you can be your best for the people counting on you.

Ask yourself:

  • Can I name two real strengths and two real gaps without hesitating?
  • Do I notice my mood and stress before they spill onto others?
  • When did I last ask someone for honest feedback, and what did I do with it?

Lead yourself first. Awareness is where every other leadership skill starts.

B is for Belief: trust what you can do

Belief isn’t having every answer. It’s believing you can figure things out and owning the outcome before you feel fully ready.

Awareness feeds it. When you honestly know your strengths, your belief rests on something real. When you know your gaps, they become things you’re working on instead of secrets. That’s a healthy, positive self-image: “I know what I bring, and I know I can grow.”

What the research says

Psychologist Albert Bandura called this belief self-efficacy. He proposed that it shapes whether you start something hard, how much effort you put in, and how long you keep going through obstacles. That last part is resilience, and each setback you push through builds more belief.

Alexander Stajkovic and Fred Luthans combined 114 studies covering more than 21,000 people and found a clear positive link between self-efficacy and work performance.

Your brain responds too. In a 2016 study led by Christopher Cascio, people who reflected on their core values showed more activity in brain areas tied to self-related thinking and reward, including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and that activity predicted later changes in behavior.

Ask yourself:

  • When something needs doing and nobody owns it, do I pick it up?
  • Can I make a decision with incomplete information and stand behind it?
  • When I get something wrong, do I fix it and keep going?

Awareness gives you a true picture of yourself. Belief in that picture lets you step up.

C is for Calling: feel the pull to serve

Calling is the capstone. Once you see yourself clearly and believe in yourself, ask one more question: do you feel called to serve people, lead a cause, or make an impact beyond your own work?

Money and titles won’t carry you through a hard week. Caring whether people get better will. If you feel that pull, and you’ve worked on your A and B, you have the capacity to lead.

Ask yourself:

  • Do I get energy from helping someone else improve?
  • Is there a cause or a group of people I want to make better?
  • Would I still want this if the title came with no extra pay for a while?

Awareness plus Belief plus Calling: that’s the capacity to lead.

A quick self-check

Rate yourself from 1 (“not yet”) to 5 (“this is clearly me”):

  • A, Awareness: ___
  • B, Belief: ___
  • C, Calling: ___

Then ask someone you trust to rate you too, and compare. A weak area isn’t a “no.” It’s your to-do list.

The gap between your rating and someone else’s is often the most useful number of all.

“Not yet” is a fine answer

If you decide you’re not ready, or that you don’t want it, that’s a real result. Deciding that on purpose beats drifting into a role you don’t want.

But if something clicked, you already know your ABCs, and that makes you a leader.

If this resonates, leadership is likely for you, and there’s potential waiting to be tapped.

One key step a day

This is where the name Keystep comes from. Leadership is built through consistency: taking one key step every day. Start with your lowest letter today:

  • Awareness: write one if-then plan for a moment that usually trips you up.
  • Belief: write down three things you do well, then own one task nobody has claimed.
  • Calling: help a newer coworker with something they’re stuck on.

Know your ABCs and practice them daily, and you’re a leader people trust.

Get one key step in your inbox

If you’d like a practical leadership step like this delivered to you, join the free Keystep email list.

Join the free email list →

Sources

  • Killingsworth, M. A. & Gilbert, D. T. (2010). Minds wandered in about 47% of sampled moments, and people were less happy when they did. “A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind,” Science 330(6006), 932. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1192439
  • Eurich, T. (2018). About 95% of people think they’re self-aware; only 10 to 15% are. “What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It),” Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/01/what-self-awareness-really-is-and-how-to-cultivate-it
  • Lieberman, M. D., et al. (2007). Putting feelings into words reduced amygdala response. “Putting Feelings Into Words,” Psychological Science 18(5), 421-428. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01916.x
  • Gollwitzer, P. M. & Sheeran, P. (2006). Across 94 tests, if-then plans had a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals. “Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement,” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38, 69-119. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1
  • Oyserman, D. (2009). Identity shifts with context, and people lean toward actions that fit it. “Identity-based motivation,” Journal of Consumer Psychology 19(3), 250-260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2009.05.008
  • Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy shapes whether people start, how hard they try and how long they persist. “Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change,” Psychological Review 84(2), 191-215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191
  • Stajkovic, A. D. & Luthans, F. (1998). 114 studies with 21,616 people showed a clear positive link between self-efficacy and work performance. Psychological Bulletin 124(2), 240-261. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.124.2.240
  • Cascio, C. N., et al. (2016). Reflecting on core values raised activity in self-related and reward areas, including the vmPFC, and predicted behavior change. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 11(4), 621-629. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsv136
  • The ABCs framework and self-check questions are Keystep’s own, not a validated psychometric instrument.

General guidance, not legal, HR or employment advice. Check your own organization's policies.