Now What?
Imagine an art exhibit with one room containing breathtaking paintings, sweeping you away with the color, lighting, brilliance of design and detail followed by another room littered with mere sketches with perhaps a splash of color added? What made the artist stop short of completing a potential masterpiece? Did he lose his passion? Did he feel defeated, bored, or distracted?
Recently I read an article out of Harvard Business Review about how most managers reach a certain level of proficiency and stop—far short of what they could attain. Why? Is the place in which they find themselves good enough? How many of you have worked from the proverbial abandoned canvas?
Working with federal agencies and small to mid-size businesses I, too, see this phenomenon of managers who stall in their development. Why does this occur and what can be done to complete the masterpiece of leadership potential?
- Most don’t know what is required of them to be effective as a leader. There may be books to read or classes to attend but without having an accurate assessment of gaps you don’t know where to start. Look for feedback. Seek input on your performance.
- Many don’t know HOW to make the change. What can you do to lead more effective team meetings or to communicate in ways that meet the needs of employees? Try new things then ask for input on how it worked.
- Some start the process of development but underestimate the time and effort it takes to apply new skills and practice new approaches to situations. There is no substitute for consistent, persistent effort.
- In our world of immediacy and urgency, the focus is on short term results vs. long term development. Like the artist’s painting, brilliance takes time.
- Fear of failure is one of toughest barriers to overcome. Developing any behavior change takes trial and effort. Stumbling and picking yourself up again is nature. Failure is a powerful step in ultimate success. We learn from failure much more than we learn from success.
Similar to the artist who is struck by the beauty of a field of brilliant flowers, we all need a mental model to lay over the chaos of daily life, lift above it and align our continued development into a framework of ultimate success. True leadership is breathtakingly beautiful. What is the next brushstroke on the canvas of your leadership journey?
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