Where are you on your leadership journey? You can find a free Leadership Capital Assessment here that charts your progress along two axes: visualization and actualization.
Visualization involves figuring out what treasure it is you seek and charting the path to that goal. This requires developing the first two Cs of leadership: capability and culture. Actualization, or putting your vision into action to achieve your goal, involves developing the next two Cs of leadership: communication and connection.
Are You an Uninspired Leader?
Uninspired leaders are aspiring leaders who have made decent progress along the axis of actualization, but need to make much more progress in the area of visualizationÂ. They’ve made some progress in their careers; they can pay the bills and may even have what looks like success from the outside.
However, because they haven’t articulated their goals to themselves, they find themselves lacking passion or purpose in their work.
These leaders might be looking to have more impact—or perhaps they are just bored and looking for more of a challenge. Either way, they want to take their game to the next level. They may not be leveraging their true leadership superpower or be clear on their real goals. As I describe in my book The Treasure You Seek, this is where I found myself after years in private equity, when I realized that my superpower and true calling was teaching and coaching.
So I speak from experience on this one. It’s easy to get stuck in this position because it feels safe. Putting yourself out there in new ways might feel risky, like letting go of the side of the pool. But if the passion isn’t there, the leadership journey is unfinished. You need to get out of your comfort zone and embrace some risk.
Low-Flying Leaders
In aviation, it feels less risky to be close to the ground. After all, the higher you are, the further you have to fall. But this is actually an illusion of safety. In true flying, altitude is your friend, giving you a cushion to adjust in case something goes wrong in midair.
At 20,000 feet, you can coast a while if your engine goes out, until you can get things running again or change your flight plan to find a safe place to land—in other words, you have options. You also encounter fewer obstacles up there, while flying low puts you at risk of running into power lines or a cell tower. Higher up, you may not be able to see the ground, but you can cover more ground.
Uninspired leaders have gotten off the runway, but they are humming along at a low level. Fear holds them back from flying any higher. They may also not really know where they ultimately want to go.
If you’re flying low because it feels safer, though, you’re actually in a riskier position, and you’re cutting yourself off from a wide range of options and opportunities. The thing is, if you’ve got the capability to get in the air, you’ve got the capability to fly even higher—you just need the confidence.
Building Confidence
Ideally, your confidence will slightly outstretch your capability, allowing you to get out of your comfort zone and grow and develop. You want to reach for opportunities that are just a little bit beyond your grasp. Uninspired leaders aren’t stretching, so they’re
leaving opportunities on the table and not fulfilling their real potential. Their confidence needs to catch up with their capability.
In teaching young leaders to start building confidence, I try to impart a willingness to experiment and an understanding that it’s all right to try something and fail. Even trying is accomplishing something.
If you want to pursue something entrepreneurial, but you’re in a job at a larger organization and you don’t feel up to the risk of leaving it, try something intrapreneurial. In whatever situation you find yourself now, you can start to take some chances, try some experimentation, and take some entrepreneurial risks that will move you forward in your journey and help you start to develop your leadership capital.
This article was originally published here.
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