A love letter to the reluctant leader

This morning as I walked home following my routine caffeine hit, I spent some time reflecting on the topic of leadership, and how I might best speak about this in a way which is valuable to clients over at Emerson Health. But quickly thoughts turned to my own leadership journey - and I realised it is such a personal story that it is better suited to sitting in this part of the internet universe. 

Truthfully, I am someone who prefers to be supporting initiatives which I think are on the right track, rather than being in the limelight. This is why I prefer to facilitate conversations rather than to step on my own soapbox, why I squirm a little bit inside when I hear the words “pathway to leadership”, and why it took me far too long to give myself appropriate position titles in my consulting business.

Yes. You read that correctly. It was only when it became apparent that my staff needed appropriate titles to reflect their leadership journey that mine had to change out of necessity. I gripped tightly onto the title of Principal Consultant for far too long; and again I clung to Director for dear life until it was no longer tenable and then I had to become the Managing Director. It was uncomfortable at first but then it just became normal, and I got on with things. As I write this, I realise it may sound ridiculous -  but I’m sharing this so you know that reluctance to embrace the signifiers of leadership is a very real psychological challenge in my world!

The irony of course is that In parallel, I’d be facilitating big strategic workforce planning projects where often the discussions would touch on how a cohort of people who are (for the most part) detail-oriented with introvert tendencies might be encouraged to step up into influencing and leadership roles themselves. Or how we might be able to persuade a small but very valuable allied health workforce to strategically navigate organisational relationships to advocate more effectively for their profession. We’re talking here about how to build the capacity and confidence for people who may not have seniority in an organisational sense to step into leadership irrespective of their role title.

The truth is, I was a leader long before I was the Managing Director. Organisational seniority or a particular set of words in a job title should mean that someone is a leader, but there are so many other ways that leadership can present in our workplaces and in society more broadly. I now think that authority-based leadership is perhaps the clunkiest leadership signifier of them all. 

Leadership is not directing people what to do. It is about speaking up about things which you think should be different and bringing constructive and achievable ideas on how that might happen. It is about being able to facilitate collaboration and co-design amongst a group of people, so that they have ownership in the solution. It is about inspiring others through our words and conduct. It is behaviour in accordance with our values.  

I used to think that in order to be a leader one day the leadership fairy would rock up in sparkles and tap you on the head with a glitter-coated wand, and boom - that’s it, you’re officially a leader! The reality is, being formally acknowledged as a leader is probably one of the later stages of a leadership journey. It starts when you step up before the leadership fairy arrives, and often you are not going to be asked.

So, from one person who squirms when the 'l' word gets bandied around to another, here’s my advice. Right now, the world needs leadership more than ever. (Not-the-telling-people-what-to-do-sort. The type where you inspire positive change amongst your peers). Your job title has nothing to do with being a leader. But if you have thoughts and ideas about how to positively influence some part of your world - then instead of patiently waiting for someone else to both come up with the solution and get it in place - take this as a strong hint to go for it!