I recently ran into an old friend from high school. It was great to see him; he was exactly as I remembered: friendly, easy-going and (still) easy on the eyes.
In our brief conversation, he asked what I had been up to (for the past almost 20 years) and so I shared a couple of details of my life, including the fact that I now worked as an executive coach. He said he had heard about coaching and thought it sounded like a great gig. I said it was. We moved onto other topics and then parted ways, both of us no doubt marveling at the passage of time.
A week later, I received a phone call. It was my friend. He decided that he too would like to start a coaching practice. “Well,” I said, “I am sure you would be very talented as a coach, but you should know, I actually went to school for over ten years to do what I do.”
Initially, I was offended he thought so little about what it took for me to be successful in my profession. However, with the rise in popularity of coaching during the last decade, and the numerous schools that popped up to capitalize on that popularity (some promoting 2-week courses), I realized I really couldn’t fault his (mis)perception.
The experience made me think about the leaders with whom I work. And, I wondered if at least one of the many challenges facing my clients could be the result of them not thinking of leadership as a profession and, as their profession.
Many of us begin our careers as individual contributors. When we perform well, we are promoted. “John, you are an excellent clock maker. As a result, we would like you to now manage the clock-making department.” Our instant reaction is positive. “Finally, I am the boss!” John says to himself. But wait a minute, he reflects, “I won’t be rewarded for just making clocks anymore? I liked making clocks. I was good at it.
So, what does John do? He accepts the management position and helps others make clocks. However, as he is still responsible for making some clocks himself he finds the interruption from others -requesting assistance in making their clocks (his new real job, among a host of other things which he has not yet fully accepted) to be a bother.
Truth be known, John prefers the satisfaction he obtains from making clocks and often wishes the people issues would just go away. As a result, he continues to do most of what he did to obtain the promotion. After all, it worked quite well. That is, up until now …
John has not made the necessary leadership thought shift.
Of course, this is easy to see in such an obvious example. However, I wonder how many of us truly make the necessary shift when faced with a similar leadership transition (whether from individual contributor to first-time manager or from functional manager to business manager).
In their book, The Leadership Pipeline: how to build the leadership-powered company, Charan, Drotter and Noel outline the six critical passages a leader must navigate and the intricacies of the corresponding thoughts shifts required at each stage. I have found it to be an extremely valuable read, one in which leaders will do well to invest their time.
It has been said that we do not change people by giving them new information or new skills. Rather, we change them by changing who they believe themselves to be. To borrow from the old parable, are you a brick layer or are you building a Cathedral? How you think of yourself and your role determines what you choose to focus on, what you do and, perhaps most importantly, how you decide to do it.
When asked what you do for a living, have you ever answered, “I am a leader.”?
Do you believe you are in the profession of leadership? A doctor would say she was a Doctor. A lawyer would say he was a Lawyer. Should a leader not similarly respond, “a Leader.”? Perhaps. However, I recognize this might not be realistic. However, the perspective is definitely intriguing.
Think about it.
If we thought of leadership as our profession, would we not readily invest in studying it as would a doctor study the human body or a lawyer study the law? We would without question.
When promoted, would we not see our new role (whether first time manager or new group president) as an inherently different job? One that would require something entirely different from us and, one that would evaluate our success in an entirely new way (from how well we accomplish tasks to, how well we can get others aligned and motivated to accomplish tasks; to how well we determine what tasks need to be accomplished and how we will communicate that vision and architect our organization so others can fulfill it).
If we thought of ourselves as leaders, would we not see leadership as our primary role (vs. something we need to do on top of our technical work)? Indeed. We would understand that the technical side of our work is merely a part of what we need to know in order to lead our people and our organizations well.
Incidentally, this is something Lou Gerstner Jr knew well when he took over IBM. If you are not familiar with the story, you might find it enlightening to read, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance).
Finally, if we thought of leadership as a profession there would be no articles espousing the need to invest in leadership development and there would be no (sales) studies on the ROI of doing so (do you find articles advocating the need for doctors to study medicine or studies on the ROI of lawyers who attended law school vs. those who did not?)
If we truly thought of leadership as a profession, we would only discuss when and how to most effectively develop our people so they are in the best possible position to propel our organizations into the future. Thankfully, the most successful organizations already understand this.
Two Questions:
What need to be the top three areas of focus for someone at your level of leadership?
Now, assess yourself: where do you currently invest the majority of your time?
Recommended reading for those in the leadership profession:
The Leadership Pipeline: how to build the leadership-powered company by Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter & James Noel
The First 90 Days: critical success strategies for new leaders at all levels by Michael Watkins
Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance: Inside IBM’s historic turnaround – by Louis V. Gerstner Jr
Susanne Biro is a senior leadership coach with Bluepoint Leadership Development and principle director of Susanne Biro & Associates Coaching Inc. She is the co-author of Unleashed! Expecting Greatness and Other Secrets of Coaching for Exceptional Performance. She can be reached at susannebiro@bluepointleadership.com
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