All aboard the Leadership Express!
Station Thirteen: Baby Steps
Welcome Aboard: The Rise As A Leader Journey!
Every great leader embarks on a journey, and today, we continue ours. Each stop along the way reveals new insights, challenges, and discoveries about yourself as a leader.
Our final destination? Your personalized Leadership Development Plan, a roadmap to becoming the leader you aspire to be.
Today, we arrived at: Baby Steps– What skill will you prioritize, and what is your next move?
This is where your big vision meets real action. Progress doesn’t start with pressure, it starts with clarity and one small, intentional step.
Reflect. Write. Grow. Your answers are shaping how you lead with purpose and direction.
Let’s dive in!
Reflective Questions
Here are some questions to help you reflect deeper.
Small Steps. Big Progress.
You’ve identified the skills you need to become the leader you aspire to be. Now it’s time to narrow your focus.
Baby steps are the smallest possible actions you can take to move forward. In the world of growth, this is called the Minimal Effective Dose, doing just enough to keep your momentum alive, without overwhelming yourself or burning out.
- Small enough that it feels doable today
- Focused on action, not perfection in completing the entire list of skills
- Connected to your bigger leadership vision
- Repeatable and flexible, adapting with your own growth
Think of it as building muscle, one rep at a time. Small efforts, done consistently, beat big efforts done rarely.
And here’s the real magic:
These small steps compound over time into meaningful patterns. Each one shapes your mindset, builds your confidence, and gradually forms the leader you aspire to become.
You don’t need to leap. You just need to begin.
When we try to tackle everything at once, we often become paralyzed. The brain is not designed to process large volumes of competing priorities all at once.
When too much information floods in, it triggers cognitive overload. This overwhelms the logical, analytical part of the brain (the prefrontal cortex) and instead activates the primitive mind, the part responsible for fight, flight, or freeze.
This survival mode may cause you to:
- Shut down
- Procrastinate
- Become reactive instead of thoughtful
- Feel stressed, anxious, scattered, or emotionally drained
That’s why choosing one skill, and committing to small, consistent steps, matters so much.
It keeps your nervous system calm.
It gives your brain space to focus.
It builds trust in yourself: one decision, one habit at a time.
Multitasking or overloading your plate might feel productive in the moment, but in reality, it often leads to burnout and thus dropout.
Sustainable growth happens when you move with clarity and focus.
Choose one step. Complete it. Then choose the next.
Tool for Prioritizing Your Number ONE Skill...
To choose your focus, ask yourself:
- Where do I feel the most pain or struggle?
- What do I keep hearing in feedback or self-talk?
- What pattern is slowing me down the most as a leader?
- What skill would change everything else if I improved it?
Try this method:
- Make a list of your top 10 skills
- Narrow it to 5 skills
- Narrow again to 3 skills
- Listen to your gut and pick 1
Don’t stress. You’ll get to the others. But for now: one step, one skill, one win at a time.
Next stop: [Learning Activation Bay] – You’ve picked your path. Now let’s discover how to walk it. Your leadership growth continues... one clear step at a time.
Your leadership vision is in motion, let’s keep riding toward bringing it to life!