This coming Monday is National Leadership Day. Every year on February 20th we are supposed to celebrate leadership. Well… maybe! Many leaders who darken my coaching door for the first time tell of being exasperated and burned out. At this point in their leadership journey, they’re likely thinking, “what’s to celebrate?”

This Week’s Edition

Many leaders I work with explain that they are “accidental leaders”. As a result of honing their craft, their mastery elevates them to a position of leadership in charge of others who are doing the same thing. 

Clarify Your Thinking

While many leaders may be functional experts at the top of their game, they may feel like novices in the realm of leadership especially compared to other seasoned leaders. Their lack of skill and training as leaders is a stark contrast to their training and expertise in other areas. Their leadership deficiency causes them to question their ability to lead. 

I know how they feel. As an attorney, I was not trained to be a leader. In fact, I was trained to be right even when I wasn’t right – the attorney way! This is not a great trait for a leader. 

So, when I found myself thrust into a leadership position in our first operating company, I was ill equipped to do more than tell people what I thought they should do. I knew deep down this wasn’t effective and questioned whether anyone would ever follow my lead.

When leaders find themselves in this predicament, they are consistently deemed by others to have all the answers as it relates to leadership because they often have all the answers in their area of expertise. 

Of course, they don’t have all the answers, but who can they share that with? They resort to telling no one. They suffer silently. Not much to celebrate on National Leadership Day.

Old Thinking: I’m really good in my trained area. Why am I not good at leadership? It seems like it should be simple, but it is really hard. Maybe I am not cut out for leadership.

New Thinking: I’ve not been trained as a leader. There is no shame in that. I desire to be a leader, and I need training. What skills need training so I can become a good leader? 

Thoughts Lead to Actions

Typically, we are harder on ourselves as leaders than anyone else could ever be (including our team). So, give yourself a little grace. It is highly possible you are doing a better job leading than you think you are. 

Leadership grace is only one element. You will need additional training to skill up to be the leader you want to be. There are obvious things you can do: take a training course, hire a coach, read a book, watch a TedX video or listen to a podcast. These are good pursuits to elevate your leadership game. 

While these trainings can prove effective, a type of “silver bullet” is to join a group. Accountability by community is one of the most effective (and fun) ways to skill up as a leader. Iron sharpens iron. 

Five years ago, I started a CEO group that meets regularly. Each leader has grown their business significantly over that time period in part due to the support (and accountability) of the group. Many of the leaders I work with are in other similar groups, i.e., YPO, C12, EO and the like. 

As a group, we just celebrated National Leadership Day by taking our third annual Leadership Summit to Jackson Hole, WY. We honored each leader for their accomplishments, and each was quick to turn the focus from themselves to their colleagues. Humility. 

Think about creating your own group, and watch the power of the community positively impact your leadership and your business.

Boost Your Performance

We recognize the power of the group in helping each individual achieve their greatest professional vision in the company of a community. The power that those relationships provide moves mountains. We’ve honed our model for this type of group and others are asking how they can have their own group. Watch this week’s video to learn more.

What’s Your Opinion?

Who is your leadership group? Share it with me at robin.pou@robinpou.com. 

If you are going to be a leader, you might as well be a good one. Don’t let doubt count you out. Have a confident week!

Robin Pou, Chief Advisor and Strategist

We live to make bad leadership extinct so forward this newsletter to others who strive to be confident leaders. 

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What is “The Confident Leader”?

During the Covid-19 Pandemic, I began a video series called “Panic or Plan?” It was designed to equip leaders to navigate the doubt they experienced and to rise in the confidence they needed to lead during turbulent times. It took off. I then started this newsletter to equip leaders in the same fashion each week for the doubt that crashes across the bow of their leaderSHIP.