Leadership is a Journey
Posted by Dennis Mnuskin in intro, 4 years, 8 months ago
After more than two decades in software industry, I’ve been on various ends of conversations about leadership, technical leads, leadership teams, executive leadership teams (ELTs), extended leadership teams (yeah… also ELTs; confused me too) and leading teams of ICs (manager-speak for “individual contributors” who are presumably… not leaders 🤔).
Well, here’s my pitch, no matter who you are, what your job title is, how long you’ve been in the workforce or if you are in the workforce at all: You are at the center of your universe. Around you are two concentric spheres. Smaller one is your sphere of control; the larger one is your sphere of influence. From this perspective, whether you are a CEO, or just got your first entry-level job fresh out of school, or you are a stay-at-home parent, there are still aspects of your life that you control and those that you influence. In other words, whether you acknowledge it or not, you are a leader. What is different between us all are the dimensions of our spheres and our own habits/skills/abilities to make an impact within those.
In every situation you find yourself in, you have a choice: go with the flow or not? At one time or another, we all go with the flow and there’s nothing inherently wrong in that. We do what everyone else is doing. Or we do what our parents tell us. Or we do what our boss tells us. Or we do what we think our boss’s boss’s boss told us that one time (one of my favorites). Or we make it our goal in life to buy all the things that our neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Jones, bought. Going with the flow is safe. It is easy, and it doesn’t require all that much time and effort to figure out what to do. And then there are times when we break out and chart our own path.
At its very core, leadership is exactly the opposite of going with the flow. Rather than take the road of lesser (or no) resistance, it is about expending your own physical, mental and emotional energy to change the course of your corner of the universe. And we are not talking about making any random change, but an intentional, positive and meaningful one. When you set out on a journey to make leadership a regular practice, it will constantly require you to…
- observe, orient yourself and get clarify of where you are
- figure out where you must, should or want to go
- develop a plan for how you will get there
- have grit to persist and adjust as needed in execution on that plan
- regularly pause, look back, reflect and learn
And it’s this journey that makes life interesting... for some of us. As we pause and reflect, we think through what we have done, what we have learned and what we would do differently next time. This website is my project in capturing some of the reflections of my own journey. I’m doing this exercise as much for my own reflection as to share with others anything they might find useful.
As our journeys unfold, we learn more about the world and about ourselves. We learn about our strengths, our weaknesses and where to make course adjustments. We might decide our written communication skills could use a bit more practice. This website is my project to learn how to express myself in written form. Fair warning, I’m not a writer nor do I have dreams of becoming one... at this point.
And along this journey as we pause and reflect, we might come to contemplate our interdependence and realize how important it is to build connections so that we can help and support each other as we are traveling. Actively making connections is something I've been trying to do regularly and this website is a part of my project to learn how to connect with other travelers. Are you a traveler who has wisdom to share? Or want to say something? Or to ask something? Drop me a note.