A client of mine was recently featured in the Washington Post. I wrote an email to congratulate her on this accomplishment. Her reply was “I didn’t even recognize myself. I’ve become, like, a leader now.”
Most executives take the reigns of their organization before they are ready and like my client, can hardly recognize themselves once they are there. Employees do excellent work and then suddenly find themselves rewarded with positions of power and influence. Whether you are a start-up founder who’s team has grown from the corner of a co-working space to a shmancy office, or you’ve been faithful to your company for 15 years and are now brandishing a vice president title, the leadership transition is often disorienting and brings more questions than answers.
How did I get here?
Do I have what it takes to stay here, and do I want to?
Can I be a different leader than the ones that I have followed?
What don’t I know that I need to know to succeed at this level?
Executives usually keep these questions to themselves. After all, the c-suite title is what so many are reaching for. But leaders often fail to anticipate the cost accompanying such an achievement. Trusted peer relationships you once used to discuss your boss’s decisions have morphed into direct reports complaining about you. People who used to be your senior are now peers, and political rivals. Cherished direct reports are now distant from you and resent your success. Decisions take longer to make, and come with more ambiguity. The initial shock and disorientation executives feel when entering bigger roles (which we refer to as “altitude sickness” and will write more about later) is compounded by isolation, risk, and privately-held fears.
Our modern corporate jargon doesn’t help rising leaders orient either. The “corporate ladder” verbiage can lead us to believe that there is a linear, up and to the right journey with rungs and steps that serve as checkpoints for our preparation. Those steps define an alleged predictable path to success. And we dangerously presume that each rung confers a new degree of competence. (hint: it doesn’t). Rather than a linear journey, the path to being an exceptional executive is more indirect housing a variety of experiences – both professional and personal. Growth is rarely that foreseeable, and always messy.
In the broader world of building meaningful careers, we have dangerously confused “rising” with “preparation.” We act as if elevating someone means they’re able, willing, and ready. But what if we actually defined rising as preparation? What if we completely upended our understanding of what transformational leadership meant? What if “to rise” meant “to prepare” instead of “to arrive?”
In this quarter’s posts, we will share what we have learned about that preparation through our research and experience. Rather than creating a list of developmental milestones that each leader must go through, our hope with this Navalent Quarterly is to honestly discuss the messy challenges and opportunities that accompany leadership development.
Because ultimately, we know that each leadership ascent is a uniquely human ascent. Or as Warren Bennis puts it “No leader sets out to be a leader. People set out to live their lives, expressing themselves fully. When that expression is of value, they become leaders. So the point is not to become a leader. The point is to become yourself, to use yourself completely – all your skills, gifts and energies – in order to make your vision manifest. You must withhold nothing. You, must, in sum, become the person you started out to be, and to enjoy the process of becoming.”
So, please set out with us this quarter as we aim to help all emerging leaders enjoy the process of becoming, like, a leader.