Leadership Takes All of Us
I recently came across a fantastic comment from Jacob Morgan who is an author and speaker on leadership and the future of work. He stated, “All leaders must be coaches and mentors. But it goes beyond spending 10 minutes with someone and teaching them something to be slightly more successful. The goal of every leader is to make people more successful THAN YOU. True leaders aren’t afraid of supporting employees who become more successful than them. They want their people to outshine them and become strong leaders for the future.”
As important as this concept is in today’s changing leadership landscape, it often goes unrecognized or is diminished in organizations, leaving professionals standing alone and isolated as they try to navigate the counter-currents of opposing leadership cultures and mindsets.
Two challenges come to mind that create key disconnects, impacting the effectiveness and sustainability of leaders in any company where they exist.
Organizational incentives are misaligned to a people-first definition of leadership.
Leadership is defined with different ideas and approaches.
As you sort through your own leadership definition challenges, here are a couple of thoughts to keep in mind.
You are not alone! There are others out there that see and experience the same thing that you do. Your experience is valid! Believe it or not, the larger organizational and industrialized systems around us sometimes have it wrong. Work and leadership advocates are increasingly drawing these themes into open discussions.
Create a North Star definition of leadership. Establishing a true direction with a common definition for leadership is essential for effective and healthy organizations. When you advocate for a unified definition it will serve to anchor you, those you lead, and those you work with.
Start a conversation that seeks to define and create support for a common definition of leadership. It will give your organization an opportunity to consciously evaluate their own varied leadership definitions, and then provide insights that are necessary to help the organization establish a definition of leadership that will enable growth. The goal is to have a leadership definition that is adaptive and keeps people focused in a common direction that’s sustainable. It's possible to reimagine leadership in a way that multiplies the value already residing within an organization with a network effect.