RESOURCE
Observations
Most roles require continual personal development. This particularly applies to leaders:
Their performance makes a meaningful difference to the business.
The buck stops with them.
They need to adapt to a continually changing context.
Their behaviour is a lightning rod which communicates key messages to the organisation.
Great leadership requires emotional engagement.
The role can easily become all consuming.
The impact of the Leadership Team is much greater than the sum of the parts.
It does not work to address development piecemeal. In my experience to understand what is going on for you emotionally, you need to understand your personal make up as well as how your current role fits into your future ambitions. Those ambitions only make sense in the context of what you are good at and understanding what you are good at requires you think about your effectiveness in the role etc etc. Wherever you start; role, emotions, vision, performance, behaviour or effectiveness, the conversation inevitably touches on the other areas as well.
In working with leaders on their performance, the key questions that have naturally emerged in my coaching conversations are:
What sort of life do I want?
How am I effective in my current role?
How do I nurture my energy and enjoyment?
Framework
These are the areas I encourage my clients to think about.
Shaping The Life You Want
‘Onward and upward’ is not a definition of success in life – certainly in my view. There are many more dimensions including relationships, health (mental and physical), finances, behaviour, values, beliefs and your ecosystem (where you live, how you work, what you spend your time on). Recently I have added happiness to this list. I certainly haven’t cracked it, but I am convinced that happiness does have a practical element to it ie: do what makes you happy.
I’m surprised how many leaders think about these issues as an afterthought or something to be addressed in whatever time they have left after their day (and often into the night) job. For me this is a mistake. It may be cliched but ‘life is not a rehearsal’. I am completely convinced that ultimately leaders perform better when there is some sort of equilibrium in their life.
Of course, it is not as simple as I make it sound. For example, being a good parent is often a key element of a client’s vision for themself. However, the challenges of this constantly change, from the practical logistics of the newly born, to creating quality time with primary school children, to the emotional demands of teenagers and the career angst of young adults (if only it was as predictable as that). This requires continually adapting to changing circumstances including the inevitable bumps along the road (redundancy, illness, poor schools, divorce etc).
The same applies for many other parts of life’s rich experience including health, fitness, relationships, community, finances etc etc.
Leaders are generally talented people with meaningful resources and real choice if they decide to act on it. Taking control of their lives (as much as that is possible) matters for them as individuals and for their performance as leaders.
Shaping Your Leadership Role For Maximum Impact
This will have commercial and personal benefits.
Focus is critical otherwise you will be consumed and the organisation confused.
Time is a scarce and valuable resource.
There will always be too much to do.
Being thoughtful about your role, will encourage others to do the same.
By delegating, empowering and giving your team space, you will make them more effective.
There are some parts of the leadership role where the ownership cannot be delegated, especially creating the team and owning the narrative.
I particularly like this model of organising the leader’s role.
Must Do’s | Even CEO’s have stuff they need to do – organise it and make it work. |
Double Down | Select carefully what you can choose to do and put your weight behind it. |
Stuff Happens | You know it will – but make sure the barriers to getting to you are high and your ability to respond quick. |
Sustaining Your Energy
It is a reality of life that leaders in their 50’s cannot work at the intensity they did 20 years earlier. The advantage, if they choose to act on it, is that this forces them to work smarter.
The ideal is to combine both throughout your career:
Investing in your health (fitness, diet, lifestyle, mental wellbeing) to help optimise your current and future performance
Working smartly, so that you conserve your energy and ideally enhance it. It also prevents you from developing bad habits which require Herculean amounts of effort.
Your levels of energy, good and bad, will be infectious to those around you.
10 Top Tips
Investing In Yourself
Think about your life, career and performance holistically – it is all joined up.
Be brave in exploring and understanding your emotions – the benefits will be significant.
Have development plans for yourself and your team – they prompt action.
Invest time in shaping your role – and act on it.
Have a life plan – the plan might be useless, but the planning will be invaluable.
Invest in your health – it doesn’t last forever.
Align your reality with your vision – otherwise you are kidding yourself.
Enjoy the journey – it is what makes a successful career.
Stay grounded – nobody has a perfect life.
Use a coach – they make a real difference!
Comments