While the first two get said often, I believe the additional two are also certain. I don’t remember anyone retelling stories of taxes, yet we consistently retell stories involving death, the bravery of others, leaders you would follow again and again, and the ever-surprising heart of people helping people.
Leadership
When it comes to leadership, the heart is required too. It is the foundation of understanding why to be a good leader, how to be a good leader, and to pay attention and strive in what it takes to be a good leader for the people you’ve been given. A leader must learn to work with the talent required for the outcome, win those people over to the purpose behind the work, and then help them all achieve the finish line. That requires being effective.
Being Effective
This month I recommend the book called The Effective Executive (see recommendation below) to help you recognize where you are already thriving on your way there and if there are new areas for growth that need your attention.
Business Savvy
This term is not new, but it has taken on a new depth of understanding as I coach more and more executives who are not well-versed in communicating their value. Communicating one’s value is not speaking to a salary level or limit, it is communicating how you succeed in helping any organization reach its goals. This includes the connection your talent has in the bottom-line gain of the projects, clients, or products your previous organizations achieved by you being there. It is knowing the ROI of you.
The ROI of You
Being able to communicate the ROI of you is not intuitive. And the more I bring it up when I speak to leaders, it appears it universally hasn’t been framed this way before. We know people tout their achievements (most do it poorly!). We know people love to tell stories about themselves in a way that can often make others feel inferior (ugh!). So how do you share how and what you know about the differences you’ve made to the bottom line in roles you’ve had before? You talk financially through stories that highlight your efforts and the efforts of the team that you led. You speak to the gains earned by the company due to the projects you worked on, you speak to the ability to retain talent versus turnover, and you speak to the value you bring to the culture.
It’s not just the interview
Leaders need to become great storytellers to convey their experiences, the lessons they’ve learned, their failures, and what they bring to the table now because of it all. Your career has more than one story, it practically has a story for every day, project, milestone, and mishap. Craft the stories your teams need to hear to understand why you are there. This helps build trust, and confidence, and the reason they show up to work to work with you.
Become an Effective Leader so that you become an Effective Executive
To learn more, I’d love to hear about your journey and where you feel the growth needs to happen next. My goal is to help you love your leadership role too.
Plus
As I announced in March, I am on a quest to pick the brains of leaders, and if you are one of them, please grab this link, and let’s schedule some time. On top of having some questions of my own, I’d love to honor your success. The goal is to learn what you think needs to evolve in leadership development today and beyond.
Plus+
Let’s explore creating a LinkedIn post together too. Celebrating your wins gains you exposure and creating conversations around where leadership development needs to grow helps us get people talking.