I enjoy success as much as anyone else. That rush you get when a project or launch that you have been working on goes as planned (or even better than planned). It gives you a great sense of accomplishment, pride and probably a solid boost to your ego (this is a whole other discussion!).
I have been fortunate to have had a lot of those moments in my career up until this point, and have taken the opportunity to maximize the learning from each of them, building my style and my "way".
What I am more fortunate for however, is having had the opportunity to lead.
Working with a team, helping them succeed and develop while at the same time growing yourself is extremely rewarding. It's way way harder than then technical stuff; learning systems and processes is so much simpler than effectively leading a team.
In my experience, most "leadership training", which a lot of the time is actually management training, does a disservice to future leaders. You get personality tests, you walk through proven models, and you are led to believe there is a formula to leadership.
For me, being a better leader means acknowledging a few things:
A lot of my leadership development has come through self learning (books, articles, seminars, asking for feedback, etc).
Don't get me wrong, I have had some amazing professional training experiences, however to be a good leader, you need to constantly be looking to learn and better yourself.
Today I had the opportunity to attend a talk given by Michael Bungay Stanier. Michael is a world renowned leader in coaching and is an amazing speaker. He is the author of multiple books, including The Coaching Habit and The Advice Trap.
I was first exposed to Michael by a former colleague who knew of my passion for leadership and reading. She had suggested his book (The Coaching Habit) to me a couple of years ago now, and it has been on my "to get to" shelf ever since. Having the opportunity to hear Michael speak, I quickly moved The Coaching Habit to the top of the list and was able to get through it prior to this morning's session.
I loved his talk, and once again had the opportunity to learn, grow and develop my self-awareness.
Here's what was most useful for me from today's talk on The Advice Trap:
I put a lot of effort into asking questions, that is a huge part of my leadership. Sometimes my team would get frustrated when they would come to my door with a problem, and I would want to talk it over with them and not just give them an answer. I have always found working through another person's thinking more beneficial than just staying focused on the task and whether or not it was done as "expected".
Michael had us pair with another attendee in the room to have a back and forth dialogue to demonstrate his point (Michael's sessions are very interactive, other facilitators PLEASE take note).
So we are going through the exercise, and I am asking the specific questions and approach laid out for us and I think I am doing really well. I start hearing what seems to be like a theme in my partner's answers, immediately I have this lurking "answer" that is now just waiting to help with this dilemma.
Then Michael flips the slide and on the screen is a lurking shadow of a person ... THE ADVICE MONSTER!
With Michael saying "You don't know this person, you don't know anything about the context, you have no idea what other factors are at play ... but YOU have an ANSWER!".
So true. That immediate awareness that the habits in my brain were already kicking in, that I was shifting from listening to understand and had moved to listening to respond had completely happened ... even with all the time I invest developing my leadership.
Humbling.
The level of awareness that gave me was fantastic.
Working with a team, helping them succeed and develop while at the same time growing yourself is extremely rewarding. It's way way harder than then technical stuff; learning systems and processes is so much simpler than effectively leading a team.
In my experience, most "leadership training", which a lot of the time is actually management training, does a disservice to future leaders. You get personality tests, you walk through proven models, and you are led to believe there is a formula to leadership.
For me, being a better leader means acknowledging a few things:
- You are never good enough, always be strive to do better
- You have to challenge yourself
- You have to be putting in the work - leadership has it's own skill-set, some people may access these more naturally than others, but most people can develop them
- You will make mistakes
- Your title or position in an org chart does NOT make you better than your team (and that's big T there, meaning everyone at all levels)
A lot of my leadership development has come through self learning (books, articles, seminars, asking for feedback, etc).
Don't get me wrong, I have had some amazing professional training experiences, however to be a good leader, you need to constantly be looking to learn and better yourself.
Today I had the opportunity to attend a talk given by Michael Bungay Stanier. Michael is a world renowned leader in coaching and is an amazing speaker. He is the author of multiple books, including The Coaching Habit and The Advice Trap.
I was first exposed to Michael by a former colleague who knew of my passion for leadership and reading. She had suggested his book (The Coaching Habit) to me a couple of years ago now, and it has been on my "to get to" shelf ever since. Having the opportunity to hear Michael speak, I quickly moved The Coaching Habit to the top of the list and was able to get through it prior to this morning's session.
I loved his talk, and once again had the opportunity to learn, grow and develop my self-awareness.
Here's what was most useful for me from today's talk on The Advice Trap:
I put a lot of effort into asking questions, that is a huge part of my leadership. Sometimes my team would get frustrated when they would come to my door with a problem, and I would want to talk it over with them and not just give them an answer. I have always found working through another person's thinking more beneficial than just staying focused on the task and whether or not it was done as "expected".
Michael had us pair with another attendee in the room to have a back and forth dialogue to demonstrate his point (Michael's sessions are very interactive, other facilitators PLEASE take note).
So we are going through the exercise, and I am asking the specific questions and approach laid out for us and I think I am doing really well. I start hearing what seems to be like a theme in my partner's answers, immediately I have this lurking "answer" that is now just waiting to help with this dilemma.
Then Michael flips the slide and on the screen is a lurking shadow of a person ... THE ADVICE MONSTER!
With Michael saying "You don't know this person, you don't know anything about the context, you have no idea what other factors are at play ... but YOU have an ANSWER!".
So true. That immediate awareness that the habits in my brain were already kicking in, that I was shifting from listening to understand and had moved to listening to respond had completely happened ... even with all the time I invest developing my leadership.
Humbling.
The level of awareness that gave me was fantastic.
Leadership is a journey, you are evolving, your teams are evolving, your world is changing, your context is yours.
The goal for me is to do exactly as Michael left us with, to #StayCuriousLonger and to take every opportunity to learn.
Thank you Michael for doing what you do.
P.S. @Michael Bungay Stanier - I have applied to work with Box of Crayons in the Past ... just saying :)
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