Why Inspired to Lead? And Why Now?
Much of my thought leadership is titled Inspired to Lead. I thought I would explain why and why now.
In its most simple definition Leadership is Influence.
Being able to effectively influence is a great responsibility and requires a trusting relationship. I want to inspire leaders to strive to continuously work on improving their leadership for the benefit of all those around them (including themselves and their families).
Everyone is a leader, it is not about a title and position. That commanding style of leadership has long gone out of favour. Below are some examples of being a leader:
As a role model (this could be with your family & kids)
To direct reports
To your peers
On cross-functional teams where you have no authority
As an expert in your area
As an advisor working with clients
As a business owner, you lead both staff and interactions with clients
We really have an opportunity to be a leader in any area of our life.
I also believe that we are entering a leadership crisis. People have lost some of the art of building genuine connections, trust and relationships. With that responsibility also comes the requirement to have courageous conversations and not shy away from the hard things when needed.
Said another way, if you really want to differentiate yourself going forward, working on your leadership skills and emotional intelligence is likely to give you the highest return on your investment.
Technology will continue to advance to do more and more of the “work.” What will be missing is the human interaction to inspire action and at the same time to hold people accountable.
Quiet quitting, quiet firing are all symptoms of a bigger leadership crisis. I heard it recently called neglect, while a hard word, I think it really describes what is going on. We have been so busy in meetings, “doing” and avoiding the needed conversations that there is a collective neglect of the workforce in many companies.
I don’t blame leaders, they are often never taught these skills or given the resources to work on improving these skills. Through the pandemic, we placed so much on them with little support and often forgot they are humans too. They are struggling like the rest of us.
On top of that, there are more significant systemic issues in many organizations that contribute to neglect including too many meetings, too long to make decisions, fear of failure, avoidance of accountability, the fear of performance management, poor change management and the list goes on and on. All topics for another day.
So how do we fix it? We start by…
Giving the Tools - We need to invest in leaders to give them the tools they need to be able to form great trusting connections, so that when needed even the hard conversation can be done respectfully. Regardless of the level developing their emotional intelligence goes a long way in learning these skills. I can tell you as an advisor, I have the same challenge of building trust and delivering tough messages when needed with my clients.
Giving the Space - Genuine connection requires time. Often the first thing that gets cut in a busy leader's calendar is a 1:1 meeting, done right that should be the most important time in a leader's calendar. I am not suggesting we need to micromanage but even with the highest performers, it is time for them to feel seen in their efforts and for you to learn when they are going to need that next level of challenge to keep their drive going.
Reward the Right Behaviours - Organizations need to reward great leadership, at all levels, internally and when working with clients. Often showing great leadership isn’t ranked high on scorecards or even discussed in performance reviews. In great times, organizations can get away without it but in the first bad season, those cracks will show and cause major damage. This is what we are seeing now in many organizations.
At the end of the day, change comes from increasing our awareness and focus on an area and then taking small actionable steps each day to improve. I hope to inspire you to do that with leadership and make it a daily practice to get better. We are all human, there is no such thing as a perfect leader but let's start with 1% better than yesterday.
Coaching question: Who needs me on my "A" game today?