I’m not sure when the switch happens in all honesty. There’s a real mental switch in the life of every leader where you begin to process things differently. Dare I say, you start to see the bigger mission and vision of your organization and how it impacts you. That’s not all, you also start to see how you impact the bigger mission and vision of your organization as well. It’s a wonderful time.
You could call it brain development, experiential catch up, or even a leadership enlightenment of sorts, but it happens. The unfortunate reality I have found is sometimes it happens when people are not prepared for it which can create a mess of a leadership wake.
It’s been my experience that if you don’t prepare for a leadership moment to some degree, you’ll miss out on its full impact in your growth and the full impact of your leadership. Here are 5 things to do to prepare for the moment when you elevate your leadership game and take it to the inevitable next level.
1. Prepare yourself with humility: You have to prepare yourself for what is coming by growing in your humility and acknowledging there are things you don’t know you don’t know. If you think you are the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room. Or perhaps, you’ve misread your colleagues depths, but that’s another post.
2. Begin the work now: You don’t have to wait for the moment, you can start seeking it out by asking good questions and not taking yourself so seriously. Spend time beginning the work now. Read the books, grow, never stop learning and ask the right questions to the right people.
3. Get a great mentor: This is by far the best thing you can do for your whole life. Get a mentor who is someone who has been there before. Learn from them. Sit under them, and grow. Great mentors are great at doing 2 things; they help you grow by asking the right questions and offering advice and feedback and they point out your blind spots to you. If you have a mentor who doesn’t do both of those things, find one who does.
4. Spend time alone and think: You need to think about where you want to go, not just assume you’ll arrive there. Assuming does a lot of things to people, but one thing it does is makes you entitled and lazy. Don’t be that. Spend time alone, explore where you want to go and how you think you’ll get there.
5. Direction matters: You have to be heading in the right direction to arrive at your destination. Get really critical of yourself, and drop the critical nature you have toward others. At the end of the day, you can only control you. If you’re going to be mega critical, then get critical by looking at the person in the mirror.
Don’t wait for life to hand you anything, go and find what you’re looking for. Just make sure you prepare on the way.
leadershape 