My leadership journey…
So while there are several suggested topics to write about this week, I feel the need to take a bit of a detour. I have concerns about my ability to put together a successful leadership development plan. It is not from lack of caring or effort but rather because I am struggling to identify areas where I need to grow. That is not to say that I believe there is no room for growth but rather that I do not feel that I am deficient in any one area. I am concerned that there may not be a step function opportunity for my leadership growth. The one area where I am lacking in experience is leading with a title. Other than leading group projects I have not had anyone “work for me” in my professional career. However I have always viewed myself as a leader, since I have been able to inspire / motivate the groups I have been part of to move towards to right direction. If the question was what skill sets can I improve on to become a better manager the answer would be easy – I would simply need to work on being more organized. However, when the question is one of leadership, I have thus far struggled to identify the opportunities. I am very hopeful (even if a little skeptical) that throughout this process I will be able to identify significant opportunities for growth. Perhaps is that I still believe on some level that people are either leaders or they are not. I am not suggesting that it is all nature, that you are just born with it – but rather that it is a combination of nature and nurture. If this hypothesis is correct the question becomes, can one significantly grow once they reach a certain age or is it a case of they are who they are? I am certainly looking forward to finding out.
Leader or Manager?
Do I view myself as more of a leader or a manager? Ultimately I view myself as a problem solver. I identify problems and then do what is required to solve them. Often this is number crunching or process improvement, but quite often it involves being a leader as well. While it is possible to be a great manager with poor leadership skills, or visa versa, I believe that the most successful people are both good leaders and managers. If forced to choose I would say that I identify myself more as a leader. Even during something as trivial as the airplane exercise I found myself asking leading questions – helping to set direction. As I type this another question comes to mind. Does a defining characteristic of a leader have to be someone who sees “the big picture” – maybe not the correct picture, but one who has some vision about where things need to go. Obviously a good leader must be able to ask the “right” questions – but are the right questions asked because a good leader has that skill or is it because they have some greater vision? My gut tells me it is a combination of both, however it will certainly be something interesting to look into more deeply over the next several weeks.
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