Why RIVAS helps us become better leaders

You may be asking why RIVAS is part of this course on leadership and self-development. You may already have worked it out for yourself of course, as it’s fairly simple: leaders, like anyone, have goals they need and want to achieve. They, like anyone else, need to use as many tools, and access as much help, as they can. The smart leader will therefore find RIVAS a powerful tool in their ‘armoury’.

RIVAS helps leaders practise a few things they need to use elsewhere too. Understanding the intent behind what they want to achieve is useful, as it allows them to consider whether they are really living according to their values, and self-correct if needed. Visualisation helps them achieve numerous goals, and is something which can build confidence and set the mind on the path your conscious self really wants (with support from your subconscious self of course!).

RIVAS is also a great tool to help achieve a series of goals within a longer-term strategy. We’ll be coming on to that shortly, where we will look at how it can fit into your strategy to improve your communication skills, and we will also see how it can fit into a broader strategy to develop yourself further, into the leader you want to be. It’s worth thinking about a simple goal you’d like to achieve quickly, and then using RIVAS to help you get there – as a test case, to get you familiar with the tool, before embarking on a more challenging, longer-term goal.

You may wish to have someone coach you through the tool, who then can hold you to account as you progress through your plan, and you can also consider using the tool to help members of your family or team reach their goals. Here I would suggest treading carefully, and ensuring they want to share their goal with you and try out the tool as well. Having someone else impose a goal or methodology on you can be upsetting and counter-productive. Leaders often will influence others by example, so by walking the talk and sharing your positive experience with others, you can have an impact which goes much further than simply achieving your own goals and objectives.