We have an urgent need to raise the leadership bar.
From what I observe, many of today’s executives feel as though they’re in over their heads. Keeping up with the chaos is a victory. And it’s no wonder: leaders are under increasing pressure to make their companies all they can be, with little time taken to making themselves all they can be.
As a result, staying afloat has becomes an acceptable goal. But this simply isn’t healthy for organizations, or leaders. The most successful leaders assess their work and determine what they can do to improve what they do: they raise their leadership bar.
How High is Your Leadership Bar?
The most effective leaders I have worked with have learned to step back, even if only briefly at first, to assess their leadership situation: their career, influence, personal growth and satisfaction. They ask themselves important questions and try to find answers:
- What are the things in my role that I should continue doing?
- What are the things in my role that I should change?
In Leading with Emotional Courage: How to Have Hard Conversations, Create Accountability, and Inspire Action on Your Most Important Work (Wiley, 2018), Peter Bregman points to these concerns as foundational in developing the character, skills and desires to lead well. Let me ask:
- What would it look like if you became all you could be?
- What’s keeping you from getting there?
- How best can you alter the things that are holding you back?
- What character traits are worth developing in this endeavor?
Leaders who deliberately find time to explore these areas are richly rewarded. They grow in their abilities and value, make more use of the skills they have and enter new avenues of opportunity and success. Find a way to schedule more time for these kinds of thoughts.
You’ll raise your leadership bar by cutting through the clutter, looking at the big picture and making basic, yet profound adjustments. This may require courage, patience, determination and a second pair of eyes for perspective. I like how Bregman frames a four-prong approach with:
- Clarity
- Focus
- Intentionality
- Balance
What do you think? How do you raise your leadership bar? I’d love to hear from you. You can call me at 561-582-6060, let’s talk. And as always, I can be reached here, or on LinkedIn.
