What did you expect???
You’ve just been promoted into a supervisory or managerial position, and you’re really excited for the adventure and challenges you’re about to embark on. And then reality hits, because, it’s nothing like what you imagined. The team you thought would get along, don’t. The camaraderie doesn’t exist…and everyone is expecting you to fix it. Sound familiar? Like maybe being a parent? This isn’t what you expected.
So many express being in a leader position as like being a kindergarten teacher, or a glorified babysitter. Isn’t it time for a change?
We are at a turning point. There is an invitation to rethink, and do a deep dive into what Being a leader means. And…where do we even start? The first step is always with a question. Is it easier to just keep doing what we’ve been doing? If your answer is yes to this question you can stop reading here… Or Are we willing to ask different questions about why and how we promote people into leader roles?
What questions are we asking???
Want to change something? Start by asking different questions.
- How do you define the term ‘leader’ in your organization or group?
- Why do you want to promote this person?
- Why does someone want to be promoted?
- Are we willing to look at the bigger picture?
- Does the current leader development process actually work? What are the results?
- Are you willing to hear what the employees have to say about the leaders?
- Do you care?
I want to be clear…there are no right or wrong answers to the questions above. It’s more about having a willingness to ask the questions, And, of course tell yourself the truth.
Each individual is unique in their own way. Each comes with a unique perspective on the term leader. Up to this point the development of leaders has been like a cookie cutter type system. Leadership development has become a one size fits all process.. It’s time to rethink, and reshape how we engage this.
A New Type of Journey
BEcoming a leader involves more than ticking off the boxes on a checklist. Yes, skill development is always going to be necessary… AND, what about the internal development of the person? It’s time we started developing BEING Leaders as opposed to DOING Leaders! Is the next question formulating inside of you…well how do we do that?
I believe it begins with the journey for individuals to learn and understand their beliefs, values and attitudes around the word leader. This requires courage. Why? Because we have to go back to the beginning, to where it all began. To our family system. A system that has deeply ingrained beliefs, values and attitudes we have no idea are running in the background. Influencing every choice we make.
Being leader is very different to ‘doing’ leader (learning how to manage people). One is internally referenced, the other externally referenced.
Change the word…change the vibration
Sometimes we need to change the words we’re using in order to create a new experience…hence why I began using LeaderSELF. It brought the process of defining what it means to be a leader inside. To look at the “I”. As we shift the lens from outside of us to inside, we create space to become curious to explore – what we don’t know we don’t know. This is the space where creativity, innovation and discovery lives. The process of peeling back the layers of information, rethinking old beliefs, values and attitudes built up over decades allows for new information to be found.
Please note the internal ‘I’ focus I mention is not to the exclusion of others. In fact when engaged through a process of curiosity and exploration ‘I’ and ‘WE’ go hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other.
When we’re willing to go within, we invite a new story to emerge. One that has us looking at being leader from a very different perspective. In this space we become the invitation…the light that others see as an example as what is possible.
Until the next time,
Lisa
