Leadership is a journey - where are you on the journey? And where do you want to go?

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“I want to go from being a manager to being a leader” is what one client said to me the other day when we were talking about her goals for the coaching.

When I asked her what the difference was, she said:

As a manager I work on the to-do list, as a leader I want to inspire the team and have more of an idea on direction, on where we’re going.

Does this resonate with you?

I tend to say that a manager manages things and processes and a leader leads people and the organisation. Most of the time we need to do both.? And we can lead at any stage of our career.

There are however different stages in a leadership journey and understanding this can make it much simpler to focus on the right things and handle it as a journey.

Stage 1 - Operational Genius

You’re known for delivery and get praised for it. It feels great to be the person people go to, to get things done! AND you know that working harder is just not possible and won't get you any further. But it's what you do!?

You know that you now need to start getting things done through others, but they are so much slower than you and some of them just don't get it... And this could be the biggest pitfall - you could get stuck here unless you can learn to let go.

This is a crossroads - do you stay where you are continuing to be the one that gets things done or do you start to learn how to get things done through others? You know that becoming the leader others would fight to work for is something worth going for and you also know that you don't seem to know how to get there and if you're honest, you lack a little confidence too.

Stage 2 - Explorer

You’re full of questions and looking to make decisions as to how you go forwards and therefore exploring all the options.

At this stage you may or may not have a team of your own, but what you do have to do is achieve more through other people.? You know, at this stage that you do want to move forward, that working at a more strategic level is something that you want to do and actually your organisation and the people around you are almost pushing you in that direction.

You're learning who you are as a leader and who you want to be, how you influence and deal with conflict, what beliefs and behaviours are serving you and which ones aren't plus what all this means when it comes to leadership. How do you create trust? How do you trust? It's all about how you choose to turn up every day.

If you can't lead yourself, how can you lead anything or anyone else? Greatest pitfall? Not doing the work to really lead yourself.

Stage 3 - Guide

At the Guide stage you definitely have a team, be it small or large. You may have been itching for a team and now you have them. Yay! Or is it? This feels like such a minefield! Everyone is so different! What works for one doesn't work for the other and now it feels like you definitely can't get things done as you seem to spend all your time in what feels like a soup of people stuff!

How do you add value? How do you ensure the team adds value? What is it that motivates them and how do you get them to leverage that??

And then there are things like delegation, performance management, communication - when do you actually get things done? And how?

This stage is all about mastering leading the team, it's about learning to become the person others want to work for and with and getting more done through the team than you would ever be able to do on your own. Beware making it all about you at this stage - it really is about the team.

Stage 4 - Driver

If you associate with Driver, then you have a stellar team, you have a team that's on fire, you have complete trust in them, and they have complete trust in you. You know that if there's something that needs to get done, they're all going to pull together and they're going to do it. You know that if you aren't around for a couple of days, you have nothing to worry about because they will continue to provide value to each other and to the organisation. So at this stage it's feeling quite comfortable. You're performing well and so is the team.?

This is allowing you the time to look at a much bigger picture in terms of the organisation. And actually what you're noticing is that you're starting to get involved in or hear about different things, different conversations. You're being identified as someone who can get involved in other things. And your team may also be asking you to play in a bigger game.?

So at this stage, there's a decision to make, do I play at a bigger level or not? And if you do, then there are a number of questions. So you could be starting to ask yourself, who do I need to influence and why, how do I influence each of these individuals? What is it that's important to them? You're playing beyond your team, so what meetings do I need to get invited to if I'm really interested in a particular topic, so that I can get into those broader conversations?? How do I get in??

One of the risks at this stage is that you start getting bored. So what's next? Or you might be thinking that this is where you want to stay - the team is great and you're having fun!

Stage 5 - Visionary

As a visionary, you're a role model. You're the person that people will literally fight to get to work for. You're seen as someone who has all of those qualities of someone who people want to work for, want to work with, want to follow. And it's now your responsibility to nurture those people and to create the future leaders of the organisation. So who are the future leaders and how are you involved in nurturing them?

The questions that you're asking yourself now are more around purpose. So what is my purpose? What's the impact that I want to make? How do I deal with ambiguity and change and how do I make sure that they fuel me rather than deplete me? Because you know that ambiguity and change are just part of the world.?

Other questions will be around impact - what impact do you have in your community? What impact do you want to have in the world?

So there are some big questions in here, and this might be a stage that you don't actually want to take on. This might be a step that's? not in your plans, because you want a different balance in your life, or it could be a stage that you have always been working towards and you don't see it as taking up more time or being out of balance. This is the stage that actually makes you feel that you've arrived and that you are actually in balance with what you want to do at work personally, and in the world. Be careful not to lose your grip on reality, on what's really happening - remember that messages arrive to you filtered, unless you take the time to hear the messages for yourself.

What stage are you at right now?

What stage do you want to get to?

Why?

Let me know and if you want more information about this model. Send me an email at [email protected] or send me a DM and I’ll send you some thoughts on what you could be working on to get you where you want to be.

If you are looking for a group of ambitious, supportive, caring women who have decided to do the leadership journey together, come sign up for the wait list here >>

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? About Sonia Gavira ?

Sonia Gavira MBA, PCC is a leadership and executive coach, consultant and Certified Practitioner in Brain and Behaviour Change and Master Practitioner in NLP. Coming from a strong commercial background in marketing to Marketing Director level. Sonia has spent more than 20 years working with Executives, Directors and Managers in organisations helping them lead themselves, their teams and their organisations successfully.

Today Sonia’s interest lies in helping leaders embrace a new style of leadership that allows people to be themselves and embrace compassion, care and kindness as well as strength, power and decisiveness - polarities that too often drive leaders one way or the other. This has lead her to be involved in a number of programmes helping women ask for and progress to senior roles within organisations, and do so in a way that balances all aspects of their life.Sonia is also an expert in motivation, enabling individuals, teams and organisations to tap into what will drive them to peak performance.

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