Put yourself in the setting with the best leader you ever worked with – what was it like?
What was the impact on your life, your family, your friends?
Now put yourself in the setting with the worst leader you ever worked with – what was that like?
What was the impact on your life, your family, your friends?
How far reaching were the impacts of the leadership you experienced? The impacts were extensive, weren’t they?
Did you ever come home from a day of interaction with those individuals and talk about them?
What were your emotions? Happiness, motivated, anxiety, dread?
Who do you want to work for? Dumb question isn’t it?
Now put yourself in the shoes of those who work for and with you. What is it like?
What is the impact you are having on their lives? When they go home what are they saying about your leadership and how do they feel?
You have an impact on the lives of those around you and the people close to them. Your leadership differentiates you and the quality of the lives of your associates, especially your direct reports.
So how are you doing and what is your leadership trajectory?
I bet in you have an image of the type of leader you are and a vision of the path you are on. Is it accurate? How can you prove its accuracy?
You need feedback. Honest unvarnished feedback from all sides; those above, adjacent, and below you. Then what? Use it! Use the feedback to establish and validate your starting point relative to your vision. Isn’t this what you do every day your direct reports?
What do leaders do? First, leaders set the vision for their organization and people. Then they continually monitor progress by assessing, measuring, providing feedback, and making changes to achieve their vision. They do the same to develop their people.
Why then do leaders fail to do the same for their growth? A couple of prominent reasons I have found are, 1) because leaders feel they can evaluate themselves accurately and 2) they are reticent to hear the feedback, specifically from a 360-degree evaluation.
Reality, we all need feedback and assistance to attain our vision. Particularly if you are a leader dealing out a lot of feedback. The truth, everyone already knows the answers – except you. Your mannerisms, quirks, and frequent sayings are all part of daily conversations with those around you. You have blind spots negatively impacting your ability to lead and those around you want to reveal them. They want you to be a better leader.
How do you feel about the individual who takes feedback well, asks for assistance, and is continually working to improve themselves? It usually differentiates that person. Is that an image you project?
Leadership is the great differentiator and your leadership is differentiating you. Do you know how?
