Do you trust yourself?
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Admit it. No matter your exalted title, leadership is a scary thing. There are forces everywhere that attempt to mold you. As you enter the organization you’re looking for the norms and mores. How is it done around here?
But don’t lose yourself in the process.
My friend Howard Behar, former president of Starbucks, in his book It’s Not About the Coffee: Leadership Principles from a Life at Starbucks
says, “Each of us has an obligation to ourselves and our organizations to think independently.” *
The point that Howard makes is that there are many avenues available to get your ideas across. It isn’t just the formal meeting setting that you must be invited to by some boss. Use all of the informal opportunities you encounter to discuss your idea. Seek opinions. Recruit fellow champions. Be comfortable with your idea being a side project for a bit until it begins to get traction. Then, relate your idea to your main strategic deliverables. Now you begin to speak the language of those above and it’s possible the ears will open up a bit and opportunities to formalize your great idea emerge. Ideas are just one area where it’s easy to lose yourself because it’s easier to just go along with the status-quo.
You need to be yourself. Yes, you need to learn and grow but if you go into a situation thinking that you need to change to adapt to the situation, you may find yourself behind the eight-ball. Perhaps you can identify ways to do what you know how to do best in the situation. This trust in yourself and what brought you to the dance is extremely freeing. There is a reason you got the job – you. Use this important asset.
Growing and changing is good but not at the expense of independent thought. Don’t forget, You’re Brilliant!
*Listen to my Personal Brilliance – Up Close and Practical audio interview with Howard. Click here.
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August 27, 2009 am31 11:02 am
The earlier in your career that you learn this lesson, the better it will be for you personally and for your advancement in the organization. The dual benefits of being authentic and advancing in the organization are tied to this truth.
I first learned about using informal opportunities to test ideas and then build consensus. It took me much longer to trust myself. I just wish I had learned this earlier in my career. It would have saved me a lot of headaches.
August 27, 2009 am31 8:01 pm
I just finished a book about D-Day. One point Ambrose made was that the farmers sons and boy scouts from America, and the Canadians and “Tommies” as well, had a tradition of independent thought. Yes they followed orders. But when hundreds and thousands of men found themselves pinned down under withering enemy gun, artillery and mortar fire against the seawall at Omaha beach with the vast majority of lieutenants and above dead or severally wounded, creative leaders emerged. Privates, corporals and sergeants gathered up one or three or ten men and advanced up the steep banks. Iron, absolute discipline, which Hitler counted amongst his army’s greatest strength, would never have allowed that.
September 4, 2009 am31 3:55 pm
The power of personal authenticity is such a lacking quality in this world. It is getting harder to find because the speed of change is increasing so fast. And yet there is the Farms, Footballs and Flutes principles. A few years ago a friend indicated that he had studied people and it seemed to him that those who grew up on Farms, played high school sports or learned a musical instrument were those who had the better work ethic and the better leadership skills. Hmmm. He might have something there.
September 8, 2009 am31 1:33 pm
Jim you are right when you write, “You need to be yourself.”
Problem is (for most of us). We don’t know who we are. And most of us don’t invest the time and hard work to learn who we are.
How to find the answer? Ask others, seek education (like you offer us), take the time to focus on the question.
My coach, Steve Anderson, of Integrated Leadership Systems, taught me that “highly functional people spend 30 minutes each day in a comfy chair, in quiet place, with a pad of paper in the lap, and a pencil in the hand, thinking deeply without interruption: why am I here, what is my mission, who am I?”
I find this very hard to do. Because I have a to do list in front of me that keeps calling “Artie! Artie! Do me!”
But doing, doing, doing — at what cost? The potential cost: doing the wrong things well.
Another way to find out who you are: figure out what speech you would most like to give. (Then offer it on SpeakerSite.com.) If you tell the truth, you are what you say.
Thanks, Jim.