Too many leaders have no idea
Calling all early adopters
Too many leaders have no idea who they are outside of their work.
(I know, I was one of them.)
This would be sad enough if it were only about us as individuals. The constant push, the relentless grind, the adrenaline high. The promise that once we hit the next target, we’ll be satisfied. We’ll find peace. Followed by the brutal reminder that we can always do more, that there is no “enough.”
But it’s not only about us.
It’s about our teams. Having a boss for whom life is work often means everything is urgent and priorities are skewed. We’re more likely to view people as problems, not sources of potential. With this mindset, we can’t possibly create the conditions for healthy, high-performing teams.
It’s about our business. Our systems mirror us as leaders. If we are obsessed with immediate outputs—gotta keep the adrenaline flowing!—our business become cathedrals of immediacy. We worship the short term and forsake our long term, our big picture and our deeper purpose. We quickly fall behind on innovation, lose customers and clients, and decline in the marketplace.
It’s about our vision. As leaders going into 2024 we need to live fully in the complex world beyond the walls of the company. We need enough perspective to inform our sense of what’s needed now, and what’s coming next. Without this perspective, we buy into the transactional narrative of business… and ignore our innate potential to be transformational.
As I said above, this was my narrative for many years. I thought it was what was making me successful… until I realized I hadn’t really been making any of my choices for myself. I’d been running on autopilot. And I didn’t know myself at all.
The funny thing is, when I committed to changing that, my career took off in ways I couldn’t have predicted and I started to have impact I never would have imagined.
That’s how I learned—the hard way—that true leadership, transformational leadership, always begins within. Watch my leadership story. Do you see yourself in it?
Friends, this is my last note of 2023. Next week I’ll be on my annual silent meditation retreat, then I’ll be off until the new year. I’m wishing you and your loved ones a peaceful and joyous holiday season.
I’ll be back in your inbox January 1 with the official launch of Radiant Leader, a community of practice for transformational leaders. Don’t want to wait? Jump in to the community now to hit the ground running with us in the new year. We’ll be starting off strong with—longtime subscribers will know—powerful New Year Intentions!
(Want a sneak peek? 🤗)
