How do you know when you’ve become a leader?

It’s different for everyone.  You might have got a promotion, suddenly catapulting you into a new world with budgets, different and more senior colleagues to work more closely with.  You may have slowly realised that everyone else in the team is emulating the way you work.  You could have taken your first decision that has a big impact on others. 

For me, I began to really feel the privilege and burden of leadership when, just a few days into stepping into a deputy director role at a big charity to cover my boss’s maternity leave, I had to make one of those really imperfect, scratchy judgement calls.  I knew that only I could make the decision, that my colleagues were relying on my alleged expertise and credibility, and that the decision needed to be made quickly.  I realised that, however uncertain I felt, the brutal logic of ‘follow the leader’ had quickly arrived at my door.  Of course, I’d taken tough decisions before, I’d brought people along with me before and I’d spent at least a decade by that point being a manager.  But the scale and impact of this was different.  It involved more people, more budget, more risk and – my old friends – lots more ambiguity. 

Leadership is such a subjective thing and every leader’s take on when they assumed the mantle will be different.  Many opinions and experiences are available.  For what it’s worth, I think true leadership is when you take others with you into new, better territory, with a credibility that means that – despite not everyone agreeing with you – you do so with the commitment of those who believe in your values, principles and experience. 

As I’ve said in every reflections piece so far (it’s my strapline, after all) that takes clarity and courage, as well as the credibility I’ve just mentioned. 

That’s not easy, which is why I’m going to suggest that the leadership experience feels particularly acute, heavy and exposed in those to whom leadership is new.  Because with every leadership experience comes perspective, learnings, an embracing of ambiguity and an opportunity to reflect.  Being a new leader means time for all of that is limited, locked away in a box which can’t be opened for a few years. 

The early leadership experience can be daunting.  Mistakes feel amplified, decisions feel impossibly imperfect and things can feel genuinely lonely.  Organisations lose too many great leaders before they’ve had a chance to do their thing.

So what’s the answer?  How can organisations give new leaders get the challenge, exposure, accountability and experience they have earned without letting them fall completely off the boat along the way?   Well – and I would say this, wouldn’t I? – you can offer them support in those crucial early days in the form of experience, insight, guidance, challenge, perspective and alternative viewpoints that all great leaders I know have been able to draw upon. 

Think about the most exciting, inspiring, impactful leaders you’ve come across.  I guarantee every one of them will have sought out or been provided with high quality, experience-rich, genuinely challenging perspective which comes from mentoring or coaching from someone who gets it, someone who thinks differently and someone who’s been in their shoes before.

The reason why my core offer is coaching new leaders is simple: when I’ve experienced it – as I still do – it’s been transformational.  And, when I’m the one providing it, seeing and hearing about the lasting impact it’s had on those I support inspires me too .

If this resonates and if you – or someone you work with – are experiencing both the privilege and burden of leadership and could use some of that clarity, courage and credibility, please do drop me a line.