Happy Wednesday!!! This week, we’re exploring leadership. On Monday, we looked at “Learning While Leading.” Today we’ll dip into “My Biggest Leadership Mistake” in hopes of helping you avoid it.
Many of you are Paradigm Shifting Leaders who “get” the epochal shift we are living in. You understand the value of embracing a learner’s stance and growth mindset. You’re learning like lightning ~ making space in the cracks and crevices of your schedule to learn all you can about our new world (ie, complexity, VUCA, wicked problems and what types of skills, tools, frameworks, and processes actually work in this context). You’re developing a clear sense of the direction your organization needs to go in, as well as the changes it needs make in order to stay relevant. But, are your people learning alongside you? This is key, so I’ll ask you again…
Are your people learning alongside you?
Missing this essential ingredient for change was my biggest leadership mistake. I knew key concepts and content experts, but I didn’t know how to bring my people and partners along with me to learn what I was learning. To collectively manifest a meaningful vision, the level of shared understanding within a group trumps however much any individual might know.
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My experience, and those of other leaders I’ve worked with has me convinced: Our efforts for meaningful change will fail if our pace of learning outstrips that of our people and partners.
There is a beautiful proverb (I’m unclear of its origins) that captures the essence of this lesson:
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”.
There are a million legitimate reasons why we may choose to learn fast and alone. And a million and one necessary reasons why we need to go far and learn together. But how???
This brings us back to the conundrum of “How do we learn while leading? working? tending to all the million of issues in our daily lives?“
I’m not coming to you with answers. But I am extending this invitation to “tinker” in this problem space together.
What kinds of support would help you and your teams learn better together? Hit reply and let me know your ideas and suggestions!