How does your leadership need to change?

Over the last three years, the size of my team and scope of our work has changed considerably. While still new to healthcare and my organization, I was asked to lead and integrate five existing learning teams and several individual learning resources into one learning and development department. I knew I need to approach this large organizational change effort with sensitivity and deep understanding of people dynamics. It was critical to honor the work the teams had accomplished to that point, while also leading them to a future vision.

First thing on my to-do list was to hire a consultant — a retired CHRO from a large healthcare system who had accomplished this work previously — to help me navigate the change. While he was supporting me with the strategy, he was also gently functioning as a leader coach. At one point he asked, “How will you lead differently during and after this change?”

This powerful question did not register right away. But as I began to shift from leading frontline teams to leaders of leaders, I found myself thinking about that question time and again.

I started to attend meetings with my team to understand their work. As a learning professional focused on identifying and driving solutions, I found myself shaping initiatives and making decisions in these meetings, rather than listening to learn the business and gain insight.

In one-on-one meetings with my direct reports, I was soon faced with these questions:

“Do you not like the ideas we are proposing?”

“Do you not agree with how I handled that interaction?”

“Do you not trust me to make the right decisions?”

I wanted to be seen as supportive and ensure our success as a team. Unfortunately, what I was doing instead was undermining trust, demotivating my leaders and blocking their path to success. In addition, I was personally feeling overwhelmed, unfocused, and burned out.

How did my leadership need to change? This question returned to me during a particularly frustrating week, and finally prompted me to turn within and look for insight. I realized this about my team:

They did not need my knowledge and insight to be successful; they needed me to see them as whole, resourceful and creative.
They did not need to me suggest how they should lead their teams; they needed to build their own relationships and find their own solutions.
They did not need me to offer direction and guidance; they needed me to listen to them with presence and ask them powerful questions.

I needed to shift from “knowing” to curiosity. This shift from management mindset to leader-as-coach mindset can be one of the most difficult for ascendant leaders to make. It was (and still is) difficult for me, but the results have been powerful and unexpected. Knowing my leaders and their teams are whole, resourceful and creative, and leading from that mindset has helped them to feel more supported and empowered and has unleashed their ability to innovate. For me personally, it has helped me to work in a new way, to focus my skills and passion at the right level. The added bonus is that it has also made me a better leader and learning professional for the organization.

If you have recently been promoted to a new leadership role, the size and scope of your work has increased, or you are feeling overwhelmed in your leadership, I challenge you to ask yourself the powerful question that was asked of me: “How does your leadership need to change?”

If you are grappling with this or other questions in your leadership journey Inflection Point Coaching is here to help. www.inflectionpointcoaching.net.