3 Biggest
Excuses of Wanna Be Leaders
It's time to stop making a excuses. If you want
to be a leader, there's nothing holding you back.
This is a familiar dynamic: After facilitating a
coaching or training session, or after speaking at a conference, two groups of
people form around the speaker in concentric circles. The first, inner group
are leaders who want to know more. The second, outer group, hanging back a
little meekly are the wanna-be leaders.
The conversations I have with both groups are
always fascinating. It's why I do what I do, after all. But interestingly, it's
the conversations with the second group, the not-yet leaders, that most often
follow the same pattern.
You'd think that people who want to be leaders
(but aren't yet), would each be in that position for highly individual and
therefore unpredictable reasons. But mostly I hear people share the same three
reasons over and over again, as to why they haven't yet started leading:
1. I'm not in a leadership
position. The most common reason wanna-be leaders give for not actually
being a leader, is that they're not yet in a leadership position, which is
usually defined (in their mind, at least) as having a team to lead, people to
delegate to, or at least having some seniority in their organization.
Here's the thing: Leaders aren't created upon
arrival in a position. Leaders arerecognized as such, and then placed in positions of leadership.
If you're truly intent on being a leader, then
that's precisely what you need to do: Lead. Now. From where you are. And if you
can't take the CEO position and lead the organization--even if you can't even
take a managerial position and lead the accounts payable department--there are
a hundred other ways you can lead.
Find ways to do what you do, better. Step in
when others are uncertain. Be generous and unsparing with your ideas,
(thought-through) opinions and time. Take risks. Be creative and flexible.
Above all, add value. And do it now, from where you are.
2. I need someone's
permission. This excuse comes in many varieties. Sometimes it's professional
("I don't have the letters after my name that my peer group have, so
they won't respect my leadership"); sometimes it's organizational
("My boss / my job description / my daily activities aren't explicit
about me being a leader, so I'll look presumptuous if I start"), and
sometimes it's personal ("I'm only [some age] / I've never [accomplished
some goal] / I didn't [go to some school / get some degree]").
Look, to get started as a leader, the only
person you need permission from is you.
Yes, after you've begun to lead, you will need
other people's permission, in the form of them accepting your leadership. And
maybe you'll suck at it and your leadership career will be short-lived. But
you'll never know until you start, and the only person who can fire the
starting gun on your leadership is...you.
3. I have this role
model... / I can't find a role model... One of the most
debilitating barriers to starting to lead is also one that's filled with
irony--the chicken-in-a-headlight paralysis that can arise from either having a
leadership role model who is frighteningly intimidating--or from having no role
model at all.
As with the other excuses above (yes, I've used
them both in the past, many times), I know whereof I speak: My first
professional mentor happened to be one of the most brilliant members of my
(then) profession of his generation. And if I'd waited to come out of his
shadow, I'd still be a rookie CPA making coffee for my colleagues.
Then 30 years ago when I decided to leave the
accounting profession to become a serial entrepreneur, I experienced what it's
like to strike out into an occupation bereft of role models (this was long
before the rise of the start-up zeitgeist, and serial entrepreneurs in the
UK--where I then lived--were few and far between). The only way to get started
was...to get started.
So if you're serious about starting your leadership
career, there's one thing that you need to decide, today: Be your own role
model
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