Underneath all the glitz and glamour of being in charge lies the secret to great leadership. It’s work! Wait, WHAT? “I thought once you achieve leadership, all you have to do is kick back and issue orders”. Sadly, for some, that is true. That is all they do and personal and professional growth lie buried under their dictatorship. But for others, leadership is an ideal, a bigger picture of what could be and what’s next and what’s better and it is exciting and it is exhilarating and it is excruciating and it is work.
To commit to a lifelong journey of discovery and growth takes work. To upgrade your emotional intelligence so you can read situations and people better takes work. Learning to build teams that push each other to grow and look forward to problem solving is work. Being a mentor, a motivator, a delegator, a developer, a builder, a performer and all the other ors and ers takes work. But it is work that is necessary and needed for success. You see, success is a result. Great leadership is a result. They are the end product of all the time and energy and passion that you invest into yourself and those you are in leadership to. This is work worth doing. This is the kind of work that builds real self- confidence and self- esteem. The surprising thing about this work is that it translates to your people. As you grow and teach, they grow too. There are few things better than being there when the light switches on in your employees and you see they “get it”.
Humans are amazing creatures. They are most definitely creatures of habit and will go to amazing lengths to internalize those habits even when it is clear that those habits are not working for them. They can be selfish and needy and will go to those same amazing lengths to get what they want, when they want it, if you let them. BUT, they are also resilient and adaptable and brilliant and creative, if you let them and encourage them. They will surprise and astound you with their intelligence if you just know enough to grow them in the right direction. If they think you care about them and have their back, they will allow a positive culture to be initiated, rules to be followed, discipline to handed out when needed and through it all they will grow. All it takes is you putting in the work!
At LIA, we believe leadership is a skill, actually many skills, that can be learned and honed and used for personal and professional growth. Putting in the work necessary to be good at what you do is the only requirement. Much as we would like to think that leadership is instinctive or only for the chosen few, it is untrue. The real truth about leadership is not about what they can do for you, but about what you can do for them, it is about caring enough to develop yourself so you can develop others, it is about learning and growing the skills you need to push the envelope of excellence, but mostly, IT IS ABOUT THE WORK!