Leading the way to career fulfilment

Welcome to the October edition of The Inbox Coach. This month I’m exploring the challenges and opportunities that leaders face when their world of work changes. Whether that is with a new job, a change in circumstances or a new boss, what does a great leader do to develop at times of change in their career?

“We must reject not only the stereotypes that others hold of us, but also the stereotypes that we hold of ourselves.” - Shirley Chisholm?

Leadership and what it means to lead people is a topic that comes up with my coaching clients again and again. Whilst they are focused on their own development, it is within the context of leading teams and understanding how they show up at work impacts other people. This month in The Inbox Coach I want to focus on those moments of transition a leader experiences and look at what development you might need to do as your world of work changes around you.

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Where you lead

Before we look at times of transition for leaders, I want to explore what it means to be a leader. One of the misconceptions about leadership is that it is conferred on you when you reach a certain position or job title. Someone is a leader by the way they behave, not what is on their email signature. Leadership is expected in many roles, but that doesn’t mean you have to be in one of the roles to lead in your organisation. I’ve met plenty of people in leadership positions who weren’t very good at it and have known some great leaders who based on their position in the company wouldn’t have been expected to be so influential.?

If management is the role you have in getting work done in your organisation, leadership is the way you do it. It’s how you inspire, motivate, and lead your teams to achieve something greater than they could do on their own. Leadership is about being a role model for how to behave, to support the people you work with to be the best they can be. It’s about having difficult conversations, making tough decisions and being responsible for the culture that happens around you.

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On my own terms

Whilst there might be lots of definitions of what leadership is, and best practice for what good looks like, you won’t find a handbook on how to be a great leader. That is also part of the role, being able to identify for yourself what great leadership looks like and figuring out what you need to do to become that person. If you need to be told how to be a good leader, you are sort of missing the point.

Leadership often comes with seniority in a work environment, and part of that role is being the person who works out what needs to be done. That doesn’t mean you don’t seek advice and guidance from elsewhere, but it is about taking the ideas you get from other people and weaving them together to find a way forward.

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Reflection

Whether you have been in leadership roles for a long time, or it is something that you are only just exploring, I think it is important to understand what type of leader you are. There might be cultural norms in your organisation of what a leader looks like, but I believe we all get to decide how we want to lead. I also think this can make you a stronger leader. Rather than following a template for how things should be done, instead you need to work out what qualities are important for a leader to have and how you, in your own unique way, can embody them. When thinking about your leadership style ask yourself these questions.

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• What is my leadership style?
• How do I make people feel by the way I lead at work?
• How do I show up when things get tough?
• What do I do to celebrate mine and my team’s success?
• What would other people say about my leadership qualities?

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Action?

Not everyone is comfortable with the label of leader or seeing themselves in a leadership role. Leadership isn’t just about the most senior roles in an organisation, but it is about how you approach your work. If you are wanting to develop in your career, thinking about the times that you lead at work are important. When you need to influence change, how you lead those conversations can make all the difference to how successful you are. Leadership isn’t also just about the day-to-day work. You might want to influence the culture of your organisation around issues such as parental leave, flexible working or sustainably. Developing your leadership skills will help you in these areas too.?

Task

Take a moment this week to think about what kind of leader you are at work. Where are the areas that you are seen as an expert in, a go to person and where do you want to influence change. You might need to look further than your job title for inspiration.

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“We must reject not only the stereotypes that others hold of us, but also the stereotypes that we hold of ourselves.” – Shirley Chisholm

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Great leaders inspire others to act. They make impossibly hard things seem possible, they say the thing that no one else wants to say and they create an environment the allows everyone to do their best work and I think Shirley Chisholm was one of those people.

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Shirley Chisholm was the first black woman elected to Congress in the USA, and who was hugely influential supporter of Black civil rights, women’s rights, and fighting against all sorts of economic and social injustices. It is hard to sum up in one short paragraph the impact that one woman can have, but Shirley Chisholm inspired so many other women to enter politics and her influence is still felt today. I first found out about her through the tv series Mrs America, and I’ve just discovered there is a film about her on Netflix, called Shirley which I’m also going to watch.

Being a great leader requires a lot of determination, particularly if you don’t look like the leaders that have come before you, and it also requires a lot of self-reflection. You not only have to define what sort of leader you want to be, but you also have to believe that you are capable of being that person.

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Developing your leadership skills is something you will do for your whole career. No matter how experienced you are, you will face new and challenging situations, different people who you need to respond to, and you will change as an individual. Being a great leader requires you to be open to that development, to cultivate skills of self-awareness and reflection, and be prepared to make changes as a result. It is my hope over the next few weeks I can support and inspire you to do just that, and I can’t wait to share my thoughts with you.

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I’ll be back next week with more thoughts on leadership. ?

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See you then

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Laura

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