With the recent passing of my mother, Lela, at 85 years old, I had the gift of reflecting on her leadership in my family. Lela never saw herself as a leader, though she displayed leadership throughout her life, and eventually became a leader in her community, too, in both the Girl Scouts and our church’s religious education program. She participated as a leader in our community by supporting causes she cared about, volunteering her time, making and driving decisions, and teaching others. She also gave my sister, Ann, and I an incredible sense of support. She was there for us, and we could count on it.
When she thought we needed to hear it the most, she would say: “I will always be here for you no matter what. Count on it.”
It makes me emotional thinking about the number of times over the years she would say that phrase and demonstrate her love and support. She had high standards, yet we never felt criticized if we didn’t meet those expectations. We had the opportunity to rise to those expectations knowing that we were cared about. It was up to us to make every effort to evolve and grow. We carried hope for our futures, always.
All these qualities speak to the leadership style she modeled for me.
Reflecting on my mother’s example, I believe that leadership learning starts long before a career unfolds. Certain people gravitate early to leadership responsibility, and others begin to lead later. Through whatever avenue a leader comes to leadership, their opinions about what leadership is are formed early in their experiences. In his Harvard Business Review article, “How to Be a Good Boss in a Bad Economy”, Robert I. Sutton shares research on the study of baboon troops and how they glance at their leader every 20 to 30 seconds to see what they are doing. Learning about leadership begins similarly: you unconsciously soak it in and mimic it from the people around you. I believe this happens long before you are fully aware of even forming a perspective. I watched my mother’s example of leading and became interested in trying things where I had the chance to be in the role of a leader.
What are your teams learning from watching you?
Your leadership learning journey continues from the point that you are at right now.
In their recent “Global Leadership Report: What Followers Want,” Gallup reports that 57% of adults name a family member as having the most positive influence on their lives. Each of us is on our own leadership learning journey in life, whether we are mindful about learning or not. This enables us to pick up our leadership learning at any point in time and become intentional about how we grow as a leader. It starts with asking yourself where you are in your knowledge and capabilities and what you need to learn to expand your skills. Sometimes this will be people skills. For some, it will be technical skills. And for others, it will be the ability to expand your capacity to take on more. What is exciting is that each of us can continue our learning journey at any point in time.
How do we do that? By deciding how you want to be seen, the impact you want to make, and what you want to carry with you in working with others.
You have agency over your own development as a leader. So, what mindset and skills count right now?
There is something really grounding in thinking of your personal leadership practice because that is something within your control. You have agency over it. Even when surrounded by uncertainty or even chaos, choosing to learn and viewing yourself on a path of continuous growth can help offset the day-to-day anxieties or fear of failure.
One area of leadership practice that I have been thinking more about is being able to bring hope to those you serve. In the same study mentioned earlier, Gallup found that hope is the primary need of followers around the world. The idea of leaders showing hope is even more profound now than in prior years because of the speed with which our world continues to evolve. As a leader, you want to offer hope by being practical and aspirational in your thinking and messaging.
At the end of the day, leadership is about how you can unleash the potential of others, which unleashes the potential in the organization, even when making tough decisions. People, processes, and strategy move from one stage to the next with this focus on positively unleashing potential. It’s an incredible set of skills to learn: to be able to fly at a level in your awareness to see the true organizational picture, while being human and empathetic, striving to be a hope creator and enabler, and someone who is trusted and followed by others. The value to an organization and an individual’s career is beyond measure for someone who is attributed with these skills and qualities.
Keep Going
We are all on our individual leadership learning journeys, no matter if you currently see yourself as a leader or not. Life experiences have helped you develop leadership ideas and examples that you can leverage at any stage of your career. I wish you the best on your own unique path and encourage you to keep exploring the value that you can bring to your organization and teams.
Count on it. We will always be here for you.