How do you sustain momentum towards growth? My good friends at the Center for Intelligent Leadership speak of “reverting to the mean.” In essence, without processes, people, or procedures in place to structurally sustain growth – most of us will revert back to our steady state…the mean of today. Taking a bold next move is required to achieve your goals, but maybe not enough? How have you found a new, higher, more fulfilling mean?
A good manager must focus their time and attention on delivering a great work product – on time and on budget. You must balance and manage multiple tensions to move from a good manager to a great leader. Tensions that we coach people through include:
• Speed of decision with enough information to deliver your decision with confidence
• Leadership instinct with leadership instruction to be consistent and effective
• Being in-demand for the value you create while not creating decision dependencies
• Being decisive while being inclusive…and having the courage to move forward when many might not like the outcome
What other tensions are you managing as you develop into a Bold Leader?
Tennis players constantly move their feet to stay in balance. When in balance, all options are available to them – quickly moving in any direction for the big return. How do you perform as a leader or team member when in balance? I’m sure all personal leadership options are available for you to act swiftly, confidently, and decisively. Conversely, how do you react when someone or something takes you off balance? Knowing when and what takes you off balance might help you to pause, regroup, rebalance, and then boldly move forward.
Given the opportunity to do something completely different would you continue on your current career path? Keep this question pure and simple. Don’t let the demands of the day creep into your thought process…at least for a few moments. Surprisingly, I have a feeling that most of us would say yes. Then why is it that so many are unfulfilled on a daily basis. Can this be explained by an alignment of unhealthy expectations? Employers do not expect much of their workers…and workers live up to those very low expectations? What percentage of your talents do you employ on a daily basis? Why so low?
