Who is in your corner?
Leadership can be lonely.
As a leader, you carry a lot on your shoulders.
Your team confides in you, and you support them.
But who do you confide in? Who supports you?
See if one or more of these scenarios sounds familiar:
Scenario 1
You have a major decision to make, and a lot of people have a stake in the outcome. Anyone who shares their input or perspective is doing so with their agenda in mind, skewing their input in their favor.
What you need
You need someone who can help you think through the unintended consequences of a particular course of action, to identify potential blind spots you may not have considered, and to consider second-order effects of a decision as it plays out.
Scenario 2
You have to layoff part of your team. Morale is low and you can feel it. Your people are looking to you to be steady, but inside you feel defeated.
What you need
You need someone to share how you’re really feeling with, who is impartial and won’t judge you but will offer a space for you to process your emotions so you can be the rock others need you to be.
Scenario 3
You have moved up quickly in your organization, and longtime peers are no longer peers and don’t understand the pressures you face. You have outgrown your inner circle and no one is there to challenge your thinking. Even though you’re surrounded by others, you feel so alone.
What you need
You need someone who can help you see the world in new ways with fresh perspective. Someone to push you to think strategically. You need someone who can help you create a new kind of community with others who can expand your thinking and bring new energy.
Scenario 4
You are achieving visible success. You have the promotions, the title, and influence.
But internally, you have doubts. There is an unsettledness with the way things are.
You are the “successful leader,” and yet you are questioning your path.
What you need
You need someone who can ask you the deeper questions to reconnect you to a sense of purpose. Someone who can help you name what really matters, and to redefine what success is. Someone who can help you hone your internal compass and so you can follow it.
Photo by Roman Biernacki on Pexels
Leadership can be lonely.
But it doesn’t need to be.
If you’d like to have a conversation, just reply to this e-mail.
Love,
Audrey
