What’s Your Biggest Leadership Challenge?
Your biggest leadership challenge lies within your biggest opportunity.
Leadership is a catalyst for the evolution of humanity.
Serving as a catalyst for the evolution of human kind is quite the opportunity and no small order. Earning a leadership title is just the beginning. It’s a privilege that provides you with the opportunity to turn the wheel of human evolution.
Will you rise to the occasion? Overcome your biggest leadership challenge? Do you know what it is?
When people want to understand your biggest challenges they often ask “What keeps you up at night?” Please, take a moment and consider your top three answers. Write them down.
- _____________________________________________________________
- _____________________________________________________________
- _____________________________________________________________
Do any of your answers address who you are and how you lead?
I didn’t think so.
That’s because most of us are asking you the wrong question.
What if I change the question, and ask
“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason the human race doesn’t achieve it’s full potential, that word would be _____?
Have a go at it. Write your answer here.
_____________________________________________________________
I posed that same question to colleagues and clients. The singular common thread involved your ego, mine, and and everyone else’s. Some people called it hubris or arrogance, but more often it was simply referred to by it’s name – Ego.
So as it turns out, managing your own and other people’s egos should be what keeps you up at night. According to my unscientific poll, if you do that successfully, and therein lies your biggest leadership challenge, the human race will achieve its full potential.
IMAGINE THAT!
I hear you asking another question. “How do I manage my own and other peoples egos?”
How to Manage Your Biggest Leadership Challenge
According to the brilliant and beautiful Simone Weil
We have to try to cure our faults by attention and not by will.
Managing your ego, and it’s best to focus on your own first, requires attention. Begin by attending to when it shows up. It’s often accompanied by thoughts and feelings that emphasize I, Me. My or Mine. Paying attention allows you to notice that I, Me, My and MIne show up rather frequently. After you notice their arrival, redirect your attention to what’s most important. That brings us to the next question.
How can you use what’s happening in the here and now, to be a catalyst for the evolution of human kind? Most likely, it involves listening, empowering, supporting, guiding, inspiring, challenging, confronting, being compassionate, providing feedback and other actions aimed at helping others overcome obstacles.
By managing your own ego first, you become a role model for others. Many will notice, without being told. Some will follow suit. Others will need a little help from you, in the form of direct feedback and guidance. Setting and managing group norms will aid the cause.
For the complete set of instructions on managing your own ego see How To Manage Your Ego – The Leader’s Guide