Four Things Stopping You From Growing As A Leader

We all want to be great leaders. Well, most of us do, and because you're here, reading this - I'm going to assume that you're a wildly ambitious leadership bae who wants to be the BEST version of you possible. 

When we lead - we are able to impact other people and the world around us in so many ways. We can mobilise teams and resources to achieve incredible things like launch a new product that your target customer really needs or help create career pathways for our people and help them provide for their families and grow as humans. 

When you look ahead at the next year or so - what incredible impact are you going to be able to have?

🚀 List out all the opportunities and goals you have for yourself this year. 

Now, let's keep looking ahead at the year. How are you going to ensure you can grow and rise to meet these challenges and CRUSH your goals? 

Let's take a look at the most common factors that hold ambitious leaders back from being able to achieve their goals and hit their potential - and then you can avoid making these same mistakes phew!

The most common roadblocks for leaders and their leadership growth:

1. No Plan For Your Growth.

Leaders need development plans to grow - to improve their skills, knowledge, and abilities in order to effectively lead their teams and organizations. A well-designed development plan can help a leader identify areas for improvement, set goals, and acquire the resources needed to achieve those goals. Additionally, a development plan can provide a clear path for career progression and help a leader stay on top of the latest industry trends and best practices. This is the first, most basic step to supporting your own ambition, and actually creating a pathway to your goals - an actionable, thoughtful growth plan that helps you tackle all the new skills you need as well as minimise blind spots and reinforce your strengths.

🚀 Write a development plan for yourself.

🚀 Set learning and growth goals for yourself as a leader and as a human.

 2. No Leadership Peers.

Leaders need support from others to help them grow - and what I commonly see is leaders who don't proactively seek out connections and relationships that will help them in their development. When you create a group of other leaders to spend time with, you stop being the smartest person in the room - and you create opportunities to learn from other people.

Your leadership peers can provide valuable perspective and feedback on your performance and decision-making. Peers who have similar roles and responsibilities can understand the challenges and opportunities that a leader faces, and can provide valuable insights and advice.

Your support network can also serve as a sounding board for new ideas and strategies, allowing you to test and refine your thinking before presenting it to your team or business.

Having a group of ambitious leader besties can give you a sense of camaraderie and support, which can be especially important in high-stress or high-stakes situations. A leader who has a network of peers they can turn to for advice and support is better equipped to handle difficult situations and make important decisions. 

🚀 Who do you have in your corner to bounce ideas off and provide you with different perspectives?

🚀 Who do have as a mentor? As a coach? As ambitious leadership peers?

3. No discomfort.

You want to grow? Do you want to achieve more than you think is possible? Do you want to expand your opportunities? Then you know what Britney said - YOU BETTER WORK...

And when I say WORK, I mean - get outside your comfort zone queen! Leaders need to step outside their comfort zone in order to grow and develop as leaders. Being comfortable with the familiar can be a roadblock to change, creativity, and innovation. By stepping outside your comfort zone, you can explore new ideas, perspectives and approaches, which will help you develop new skills, gain new experiences and make better decisions.

Getting out of the 'safe zone' also means you will become more adaptable and resilient. Leaders who are able to operate comfortably in ambiguity or challenging situations are better equipped to handle change and uncertainty - which as we've seen from the last few years, change is constant. We NEED to be able to adapt, handle unexpected information and situations and be able to pivot our team and approach - and this comes with knowledge and experience. It's not like I want you to sit around and wait to uncomfortable things to happen, that sounds boring and also unproductive. Instead, take control of the situation, and put yourself intentionally into uncomfortable situations - learn a new skill, take more risks, be vulnerable - and see what you can learn.

Plus, there's a cheeky little upside - you'll be more effective in leading and inspiring your team. By taking risks and trying new things, you can role model tenacity, a positive attitude and an entrepreneurial spirit, which always inspires and motivates team members to do the same.

🚀 How equipped are you right now to handle ambiguity?

🚀 What is your "comfort zone"?

🚀 List 5 actions to take this month to step outside it.

4. No Investment

Often you'll see with new businesses and start ups, the profits in the first two years are all invested right back into the business to help it continue to grow - and then every year after that you'll continue to put 20%+ of the profits back into the business to fuel research, development, new opportunities and ongoing growth.

When we view ourselves and our leadership like that - investing becomes a no brainer! We need to be thinking of ourselves like an asset, an asset that only appreciates in value the more that we invest into it, an asset that will continue to grow and achieve more - access more opportunities, expand our earning capacity and achieve our goals.

🚀 What is your investment percentage? How much of your salary will you invest back into yourself? In your wellbeing, in your growth and in your happiness.

🚀 Are there industry groups you could join that would help you stay on top of trends and best practise?

🚀 What are the most important leadership skills you need this year - and how will you learn them?

 

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Want to be part of a group of wildly ambitious leaders, growing their leadership skills together this year?