When I started my first leadership role about 25 years ago I was in my early 20s. I remember feeling a sense of pride to be put in a leadership position. I thought it went well. I had a couple of employees who did good work and it seemed pretty easy. I had no idea at the time that I had no clue what I was doing. I was definitely not leading. I was barely managing.
My next leadership role, a couple of years after my first one, was different. It was a much more difficult situation. I had employees with more experience than me and strong personalities. It became pretty obvious that I had no idea what I was doing. In fact, I hated it. I didn’t think leadership was for me. Honestly, at the time, it probably wasn’t.
I had a few different leadership roles over the course of the next few years, but stayed in it. Eventually, I started to enjoy and embrace leadership. Looking back, I still was doing more managing than leading, but my transformation to someone who understood and embraced the purpose and role of a leader had started.
While I still believe I can and should continue improving as a leader, it is now the most rewarding part of my career. I love leading high achieving leaders that I can help develop in their career. My work looks different than it used to, but I can see that my impact is much greater.
We all have an opportunity to lead in some aspect of our lives. Whether it is in our family, in a community group, unofficially in organizations we are a part of, or in an official leadership role in an organization. Do any of these sound familiar, or spark an idea of where you can lead? Are you taking that opportunity?
Leadership done well is extremely difficult, but equally rewarding. Contrary to the way some people approach leadership, great leaders serve those they lead, not the other way around. I view my leadership role the same as my coaching practice. My primary focus is to help people grow while achieving their goals.
When I think of myself as a leader and how I can continue to grow and be better, I focus on three aspects of leadership.
- Communication – You can’t be a great leader without great communication. This can be different for each situation, but generally you need to be as transparent as possible. Also, if it’s important saying it once isn’t enough, err on the side of over communicating. I probably struggle with this aspect the most. Some days I am good at it and other days I find myself apologizing for not communicating something well.
- Learning – If, as a leader, you are not willing to continually learn to grow your leadership skills you will stagnate and become an average or poor leader. I have come across many leaders who think they know everything about leadership because they have been doing it for a while. The great ones always think they have more to learn. This aspect is a bit easier for me because I naturally love to learn new concepts and be exposed to new ideas…plus, to be a great leader I always have more to learn.
- Vulnerability – This is the one that trips most leaders up. It requires self awareness and courage. We often think as leaders we need to have all the answers. This is not true and, in fact, this mindset is detrimental to those we lead. We need to be self aware enough to understand our strengths and weaknesses and surround ourselves with a team that compliments us. We also have to have the courage to admit when we are struggling. Allowing ourselves to be a bit vulnerable as leaders also gives us the ability to be authentic, which is a critical characteristic of great leaders. I am pretty comfortable with this aspect of leadership now, but it took me a long time to realize that not having all the answers and asking for help actually earned me more respect as a leader.
There are, of course, many other aspects to leadership and nuances within the three ideas I mention above. However, I don’t believe that you can grow as a leader without these three key components.
One Small Step
Where in your life are you a leader? Is it in your business? Your family? An organization of some type? Or in the school PTA? All of these (and many more) are places that need good leaders. How are you showing up as a leader in that space? You don’t have to be in any kind of official leadership role to do this. What is one thing you could do to become a better leader? This month I encourage you to think of one small thing you could do to be a better leader. It might be reading a book. Maybe it’s making sure to communicate your thoughts. Or possibly telling someone you need help. Whatever it is, just give it a try and see what happens.
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Thanks for reading!