Your Personal Leadership Walk Around

In fits and starts I've been trying to rediscover my Ironman triathlon form of several years ago.  Most recently, as I hopped back on my bike and wind trainer, I really had a strong sense of how far I might have fallen from peak form.  I was really laboring on this early return to the bike.  I felt like my legs just weren't firing and my underutilized lung capacity wasn't helping either.  It was a frustrating start to a hoped for workout.  I had assumed that my efforts and changes in physical condition over the past number of years would have at least allowed me to start off at a relatively modest pace and not feel like things would be a complete do-over.

Somewhat gratefully, however, I did discover that my issues were not all physical.  Since 2010 two other children have been added to our family and I had failed to take into account the havoc their curiosity might play in my return to physical fitness.  As I looked down at my controls, it became evident that small hands had doubled the tension I had been traditionally used to on my workouts.  Problem identified and problem solved, right?  Not quite.  After having made the change and assuming that I was good to go I still seemed to struggle.  What I discovered, after a now shortened ride, was that these same small hands had pulled on the cable leading to the wind trainer such that whatever adjustments I made from my seated position had absolutely no effect on the effort I was forced myself to exert on my training ride.  Lesson learned - check all equipment before starting one's workout or suffer the consequences.

I'm hoping you start to get the drift of this somewhat belabored athletic metaphor for how we approach our leadership on a daily basis.  How many of us assume things about our leadership, our teams and our organizations every day?  How many of us are surprised by the results we get or don't get as a result of assuming that all of the right things will happen without some sort of conscious, regular and disciplined examination of our environment, our tools, or our approach.  Perhaps like me on my bike, your initial reaction has been disappointment with lack of performance.  Maybe you've even gone a bit further - as I have on occasion - and expressed your disappointment in more cutting, vitriolic and colorful terms.  This more challenging response may be directed at yourself (e.g., "Come on, you can do better than this!") or at others (e.g., "How could you let this happen?").  In either case we may be assigning blame to the wrong cause or to the wrong people.

The fact is that we can all benefit from our own personal leadership walk around on a regular if not daily basis.  I've shared a simple analogy from my workout process.  All who do any kind of serious racing will attest to the necessity of checking out equipment, hydration, nutrition, and mental state the night before and immediately prior to any race.  Not doing so leaves you open to nasty surprises and puts you in serious jeopardy of missing out on your personal goal. Why would you not do a similar check-in each day with yourself as a leader when what is at stake is not just your own personal performance or goals but also the welfare, well-being and success of your team and your organization?

So what might a personal leadership walk around look like?  And as with any team, are you allowing others to help you with your personal leadership walk around?  Do you have the humility to ask for and accept advice on how you leadership could be improved?  Even CEO's, Presidents and Owners need some form of input.  Do you foster an environment in which it's safe to bring attention to your blind spots?  Do you have mentors, peers, colleagues or coaches that can bring some light to your challenges and assumptions.

What does your personal leadership walk around look like?  Or are you content to work harder than you might have to with less than optimal results by just doing things yourself, making erroneous assumptions, and becoming frustrated with yourself and others.  I encourage you to take a step back every once in a while and see if your "tension" is on a higher setting than you desire.  It's About Your Leadership after all.
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Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
TEC Canada Chair/Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
hadubiak@wmc.ca

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.