A thing is happening in the leadership development industry that is driving me crazy. Billions are invested worldwide with little to no accountability for applying the learning, and it’s a common practice for senior leadership to exclude themselves from leadership development efforts.
You are where you are because you choose to be. If you don’t like it, then change something. Oooff, that concept was hard to hear the first time. But I knew it to be true. If I want something different, I have to change something because I cannot “make different” by staying the same.
Sometimes I get going so fast in my life that I lose perspective. It is like I’m trying to read a piece of paper held up right at the end of my nose. I’m doing all of the things, but I’ve lost the connection between what I am doing and why I am doing it.
When attempting to do something brave with ourselves, e.g., step into a new leadership role, create something innovative, etc., the brain experiences this as unfamiliar and dangerous. The first response is emotional resistance.
My calling in the world is to inspire, motivate, and move CEOs and their teams to ditch their flawed habits and transform their leadership – and workplaces – into positive, productive, rapidly growing, top-flight work environments.
The experience of leading others is inherently vulnerable. By its very definition, a leader is meant to be “out in front,” i.e., taking more risk, embracing uncertainty, and putting themself out there in new ways, every day. In practice, this means: