Rules for Success for Rising Leaders
I was talking to a client recently who is in a leadership position in which their primary focus is the performance of their people, many of whom were rising leaders themselves. The performance issues my client was articulating came down to a simple list, which I've flipped into the positive below. What this leader wanted from their people really is quite straightforward.
Do what you say you'll do. The people my client struggled with did not follow through on what they said they'd do. There was often no malintent, they just didn't take their word seriously enough to have mechanisms in place to keep their promises.
Show up when you're supposed to show up. Don't blow off meetings. Don't opt out of the team lunch. Showing up, both literally and metaphorically, matters.
Admit when you don't know something. Covering up mistakes, acting like they knew when they didn’t, and scapegoating were some of the observed behaviors that eroded trust and affected people’s ability to succeed. Others can often see when a leader is coming to the table with a knowledge gap. Humility and owning one's gap areas go a long way. Learning vulnerable, and learning is key to effective leadership.
Show the ways you're trying to learn and grow. Again, humility. None of us has it all figured out. We can still be confident. I wrote about sharing the ways you're growing using humor here.
Show your work. You work hard. You should show that. Sharing the story of how you got to your conclusions, and showing the salient parts, will help you convey your message and ultimately be more effective. Colleagues can't see behind our curtain unless we let them. Don’t necessarily share all the detail, but share the story arc of your thinking and your decision points.
Be kind & compassionate to others. There's always more to others' situations than you have the privilege of knowing. For more on this, learn to step away and process your feelings.
Simplify. The team members struggling were getting bogged down by the complexity. They needed to step away and think about what mattered most to their work and their audience.
Let’s step back and think about what this list comes down to. I would say: being a good person while delivering results. But how do you really cultivate that?
Nobody is perfect. Our behaviors and intentions can be misconstrued. But we can continually try. My point is that the list of things above matters more than most rising leaders realize.
Make time for yourself to reflect (coaching is a great forcing function for this!).
Make time to prioritize what needs to get done and what can wait.
Take care of yourself so you have the capacity to be kind, compassionate, and generous and so you maximize your own brain function via nutrition and rest.
I want to acknowledge there are other factors at play here. Sometimes the system in which leaders operate makes it hard to execute on the 7 rules for success above. But the focus here is on doing what we can, within our control.
