In the last few days, I've had multiple opportunities to consider the meaning of executive leadership in the context of the modern workplace. I've often said that going from "doing" to "leading" is the hardest transition of your career, whenever it happens. Your work product is often no longer a deliverable, a worksheet, or a piece of copy. (As time goes on, you even become worse at doing these things as they fall out of practice!) Instead, your work product becomes commentary, quality assurance, guidance, advice...and most often, what I'll call "feeling state management."
Let's go deeper here. I've spoken with dozens of leaders over the last year about this topic and they fall into two categories: 1) people who are frustrated because they think people around them "should" be behaving in a certain way, and they find themselves constantly running into "interpersonal obstacles," and 2) people who are consistently working to meet leaders, subordinates, colleagues where they are emotionally and guide them to a new, often better place. And consistently, it's the second category who are true leaders, and the most effective.
Managing people's emotions is hard. But it is essential. It doesn't matter how illogical someone is behaving, or how "unprofessional" you think their point of view is. It doesn't matter how disconnected from reality. Being a leader requires servant leadership: meeting other people where they are, and deriving success by guiding them to their best and highest use. Of course, there will always be outliers - folks who need to be let go, who don't do the work, who don't improve, who refuse to "grow up" professionally. But most of the time, I find that when you meet someone where they are, they are not only grateful, but they grow faster, and they become better leaders themselves. Dealing with other people's emotions is exhausting, often frustrating, but also empowering and emotionally restorative when you see the growth they make with your help. As you elevate in your career, you're not a copywriter, you're not a designer, you're not a media planner - you become a leader, and your new "work product" are the feelings of people around you. It's a hard transition, if not the hardest, but it's also the one that makes business "work." #leadership #business #marketing #peoplemanagement #teamwork #servantleadership #collaboration
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Confrontation Expert / Certified Executive & Performance Coach
1moYou listed Communication skills but, you didn't list the most important part. The top reason people are terrible at communicating is fear. Fear of what the other person will say, fear of saying the wrong thing, fear of being judged....any and all fears around speaking. If one doesn't get rid of the fear, good and effective communication isn't possible.