CHAPTER 1
THE DIRTY LITTLE SECRET
"What I essentially did was to put one foot in front of the other, shut my eyes, and step off the ledge. The surprise was that I landed on my feet."
-Katharine Graham,
publisher, Washington Post
It's official! You got the promotion! You're a LEADER! Yay! Let the celebration begin. . .or not.
I have a dirty little secret to share with you: Chances are, you didn't get the promotion because the organization knew you would be a fantastic leader. I'm sorry if that feels like a crushing blow, and it doesn't mean that you can't become a fantastic leader. It's just that you likely are not that person today, at this moment.
They (the powers that be) are probably simply hoping and praying that when you get tossed into the deep end of this turbulent pool known as leadership, you can figure out how to keep your head above water and manage not to pull anyone else under, should you not be able to surface yourself.
Why, you ask, do I have such a seemingly pessimistic attitude about your arrival to the big leagues? Actually, I have the utmost confidence in you and what you're capable of achieving. After all, you now have at least one book in your leadership library. And I sincerely encourage you to become a voracious consumer of all things leadership-books, podcasts, YouTube videos, Instagram, TikTok, coaching, mentoring, training, and whatever other means you have to develop your skills. The leadership development journey may begin here, but it will not end until you've said goodbye to your last team, whenever and wherever that may be on the long and hopefully fulfilling road ahead.
Nonetheless, it's quite likely you were awarded the promotion to a leadership role because you were really good at the job you had as an individual performer. In fact, you were probably crushing it, and because of your stellar performance record there's a Cubs' fan's level of optimism among the higher-ups that, somehow, in some way, you will be able to create the team you now lead in your high-performer image.
But here's the challenge you're facing: You know in baseball when the pitcher has to go to bat, and there's that embarrassing bunt because they haven't developed the batting skills necessary to knock it out of the park-or even to first base? They are still a brilliant pitcher, but an incredible batter, they're not. Similarly, to be an effective leader requires a whole different set of skills than those you've been using as a brilliant individual performer. But the good news is you can develop them.if you choose to. If you do, you can become as brilliant a leader as you are an individual performer.
High Hopes Hang on High Potential
Sam is a fantastic member of the accounting team. In fact, her accuracy rate is second to none. Her spreadsheets are spectacular, like poetry in numbers. They're mathematical workhorse geniuses. In fact, the joke in the office is that Sam could write an Excel formula to wash the dishes-she's that good. Sam is highly detail-oriented, and some would say controlling. But this has served Sam very well in getting important tasks done and following procedures. It has earned her high praise and recognition. The leaders in the organization believe that, if Sam is promoted to manager of the accounting team, EVERYONE around her will be just as good as Sam.
So, Sam gets the promotion. She's now leading the accounting team. At first Sam is confident that she will have no trouble making the transition. After all, it just means that she has more power and more control. Now she can make sure things are done the right way-her way.
Sam quickly realizes that being promoted to leader of the department was not a coronation. In fact, if anything, she feels her expertise carries less weight than ever, except for maybe on her first day on her first job her first year out of college.
She now has multiple stakeholders to answer to-direct reports, colleagues, bosses, internal and external clients-whose opinions, experiences, needs, and directives must all be considered, and often these stakeholders have competing agendas. Adding to her growing list of lamentations, she now has to give feedback, deliver performance assessments, have difficult conversations, and the list goes on.
She misses being able to focus just on the numbers-those beautiful uncomplicated black-and-white numbers in their nice, neat, tidy, straightforward columns and rows. Those were the days. She knew how to measure, quantify, and calculate success. She could clearly tally her wins and her losses. She was respected for her technical knowledge. Now several days will pass before she feels like she's getting anything done, let alone contributing anything meaningful to the department. And the last time someone told her she was doing a good job.well, it's too long ago to remember.
She walks into her new office, closes the door, and sobs, "What have I done?"
"What Got You Here . . ."
Sam struggles to transition from individual performer to leader, and for good reason. There are five leadership dimensions-Relating, Self-Awareness, Authenticity, Systems Awareness, and Achieving-and eighteen leadership competencies within those five dimensions1-that stand between Sam, the brilliant individual performer, and Sam, the brilliant leader. Her technical prowess got her noticed. But in the immortal words of Marshall Goldsmith, "What got you here, won't get you there."2
Many new leaders step into their roles, holding on hopefully to a few longstanding and generally unhelpful fantasies that are quickly upended by facts:
FANTASY
FACT
Mindset.
I finally have authority.
Success is dependent on your ability and willingness to work effectively with others toward shared goals.
Stakeholders.
Direct reports and my boss.
Every department, customer, vendor, or other person/entity that you and your team interact with.
Control.
I'm the leader. I'm in charge. I have the answers. My team just needs to do things the way I do them.
Your "control" comes from empowering others. The answers come from tapping into your knowledge and the collective intelligence of those around you.
Focus
Tell people what to do and how to do it the "right way"
Define the desired results. Empower, train, develop the team to execute. Provide ongoing constructive feedback. Get out of the way.
Challenges
Deliver results
Deliver results while operating in a state of near-constant change and balancing competing priorities.
Necessary competencies
Technical processes
Systems, teamwork, developing others, clearly articulating goals and outcomes.to name a few
Oh, the Places You Will Go and the Challenges You Will Face.
The view from the mountaintop is spectacular, but to get there often requires long and difficult journeys through the dark and difficult valleys.
Like Sam, you, too, are probably struggling with more than a few of the common leadership challenges-the valleys-listed below. Let's take inventory. Check all that apply, and feel free to add a few of your own:
- Your team members may be moving, but in different directions, and you don't know how to align them.
- You can't trust your team to deliver on what is needed/expected.
- You avoid giving feedback to your staff because conflict is uncomfortable.
- You do give feedback, but nothing changes, or the other person gets defensive.
- You don't ask for feedback.
- You have high turnover on your team.
- You feel like you are constantly putting out fires.
- You know you should have a "vision," but who has time for that fluff?
- You and your team struggle to set achievable goals.
- You struggle to deliver meaningful performance evaluations to employees.
- You've had little or no leadership development training or coaching.
- You know you could be a better leader, if you just had a few key tools.
- You are stressed because you feel that you are not measuring up as a leader for your team or your organization.
- You are not sure what specific skills and behaviors make a "good" leader.
- Other-Add your own below.
- My top leadership challenges:
1.
2.
3.
At different points on your leadership journey, you will likely face many of the challenges listed above, as well as others. Is it any wonder that stepping onto the leadership ledge feels daunting-if not terrifying?
Leadership-What Exactly Is This Thing?
So, what is this thing called leadership, which is seemingly so complex, nuanced, and challenging that there are more than ten thousand books on Amazon written about it and more than five billion references to it on Google?
There are some 850 definitions of leadership. In 2016, Inc.com3 ran the article "100 Answers to the Question: What Is Leadership?" Here are a few they cite:
"A leader takes people where...
