The New Alpha by Danielle Harlan

Author:Danielle Harlan [Harlan, Danielle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
Published: 2017-12-15T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

6

Define Your Personal Leadership Identity

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and it will be lost.

—MARTHA GRAHAM, American dancer and choreographer

Gael, a student from one of my workshops, recently came to me with a dilemma. He was just starting a new role at work, and, for the first time ever, he found himself managing a team of eight people. He was beyond excited for the growth opportunities that this new role offered, but he was also struggling to keep his team focused and productive. Since he’d assumed his new role, they seemed increasingly off task, and when he attempted to redirect them back to the work at hand, they either got frustrated with him, or they simply ignored him. He also admitted that he felt somewhat uncomfortable about managing people who just a few weeks before had been his peers, and he wasn’t sure how to do this without everyone involved (himself included) feeling awkward.

“Hmmm . . . tell me a little bit more about what happens when you need someone to do something. How do you handle that?” I asked.

“Well, what happened the other day is fairly typical. One of my teammates was working on a report, when she was supposed to be making sales calls. I tried to address it indirectly by giving extra praise to those who were making sales calls, but she didn’t even notice this, so I finally had to just ask her what she was doing and why, and then tell her, in no uncertain terms, that she needed to be making calls.”

“What happened then?” I asked.

“Well, she seemed annoyed, but she finally stopped working on the report and got back to making calls—I mean she did get back to the high-priority task, but I feel like it caused unnecessary tension in our relationship and that she’s just doing the work now because she feels like she has to, and not because she’s engaged and wants to.”

“Okay, let’s zoom out for a moment. Think back to the activity that we did where you identified your Personal Leadership Identity. How would you describe your approach to leadership in three words?” I asked.

“That easy! I would say that I’m high energy, supportive, and funny,” he answered.

“Okay,” I responded. “Let’s take a look at your new role. Do you feel like you’re bringing those qualities to this role?”

“Wow—no, I guess I’m not. I think I’m so stressed about making sure that we hit our goals that I’m kind of erring on the side of being stern and commanding, when that’s not actually who I am.”

And therein lies the problem: Gael was focusing so hard on being the person that he thought he should be as a leader (“stern and commanding”) that he was actually just coming across as inauthentic and awkward to his teammates.

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