Leadership is a journey and the best leaders are always learning, self-evaluating and seeking/taking ownership for self-improvement and ways to stretch and grow.
A few key questions to ask yourself, first and foremost:
1. Am I growing in my roles/ Do I frequently acquire new skills and experience?
2. What areas of my role make me uncomfortable/ requires a larger proportion of my mental energy investment?
3. Am I seeking out opportunities to step into areas of discomfort/ stretch or am I avoiding these?
4. Do I play to my strengths and leverage these enough?
5. What is the one area of my role I would give away if I could?
The above will help to form a picture and from there it important to look at a few key areas, for all leaders, to explore areas of natural strengths and those where you will require some investment in development.
People Leadership:
This category includes your ability to listen, relate, form relationships and manage your people/ reports and inspire, gain trust and communicate across internal and external stakeholders, employees, community groups. Think about your daily conversations, your structured management discussions, your ability to help others have ownership and investment in their roles and create a connection to the wider business goals and culture.
- Do you lead with empathy, compassion and clarity?
- Where do you struggle/ find it most difficult in this category to influence, gain buy-in or impact, and why?
- What is the one thing in this category you could change that would have the most impact?
- How much of your time do you spend in this category, proportionate to the others?
- How do you assess your effectiveness and what checks and balances (eg: 360 feedback) do you have in place?
Financial & Critical Thinking
This is about your comfort with the numbers. Your reliance on others vs your own ability to deep dive into what the numbers are telling you and what picture this provides of the business’s success/ pain points and areas that require attention/ a different approach/ tweaks. This includes being able to ask critical questions around navigating different ways of thinking, problem-solving, design thinking and ask the questions others may not.
- Where do you struggle/ find it most difficult in this category to influence, gain buy-in or impact, and why?
- What is the one thing in this category you could change that would have the most impact?
- How much of your time do you spend in this category, proportionate to the others?
- How do you assess your effectiveness and what checks and balances (eg: 360 feedback) do you have in place?
EQ
This includes your level of self-awareness, your self-restraint, your ability to stop reflect and consider options and to understand timing, appropriateness and when and how to tackle conversations and people.
- Where do you struggle/ find it most difficult in this category to influence, gain buy-in or impact, and why?
- What is the one thing in this category you could change that would have the most impact?
- How much of your time do you spend in this category, proportionate to the others?
- How do you assess your effectiveness and what checks and balances (eg: 360 feedback) do you have in place?
Technical Skills & Experience:
This includes specific technical experience/ skills in your industry and specialist knowledge required and extends to financial budgeting, presentation ability, communication skills, sales and marketing, health and safety, general management experience, culture and change and the list goes on.
- Where do you struggle/ find it most difficult in this category to influence, gain buy-in or impact, and why?
- What is the one thing in this category you could change that would have the most impact?
- How much of your time do you spend in this category, proportionate to the others?
- How do you assess your effectiveness and what checks and balances (eg: 360 feedback) do you have in place?
Whilst it is not essential that leaders have deep technical expertise in all of the above areas, it is important that leaders are able to bring broad understanding across all of these facets and to ask the right questions, provide challenge and focus, with an eye on the organisational goals/ vision.
Leadership roles are challenging and at times require tremendous time and energy investment so it is not surprising that sometimes the time required to invest in your own development/ stretch is not considered a top priority.
This is, however, a mistake as without this self-investment and constant stretch, your ability to challenge, stretch and inspire/ energise others will suffer.
‘Remember to recharge your own batteries first, allowing you to then empower others to reach their full potential’
Take the first steps and ask yourself… what can I do today that will elevate my thinking, take me into a level of discomfort and help me look at the business, my people and how we achieve success, through a different lens?
Michelle & Wayne are Co-Directors and Founders of Fusion Partners, delivering consulting and recruitment services.
