Is Leadership Right For You?
The role of ‘team leader’ is not for everyone.
Many of us have been sold a false narrative about what a successful career looks like. We go through the motions, checking the boxes as if this is some secret guide to leading a fulfilling professional life.
- Graduate from school? Check.
- Land that first job? Check.
- Excel and get promoted to manager? Check.
- Rise through the ranks of senior leadership? Check.
- Retire as a VP or Executive? Check.
We’re so focused on ‘what comes next’ that we don’t slow down long enough to create space for introspection. Instead, we blindly step up into leadership positions without considering the ramifications of that decision.
“Not everyone is cut out to be a successful leader,” according to the American Management Association.
“In fact, many of today’s business leaders are not cut out to be leaders at all.”
So how do you know if leadership is right for you?
If you’re considering leading a team now or in the future, here are a few questions you should ask yourself to determine whether leadership is the right path for you or not.
What kind of work do I want to do?
Nearly every leader I have promoted has shared a similar sentiment six or so months into managing their first team. “I had no idea how much time I would spend on the ‘people stuff.’”
Leaders manage work but lead people.
And people are messy. They bring with them a slew of strengths, weaknesses, motivations, and emotions. The leader’s job is to sift through all that stuff to unearth potential and showcase performance.
If that sounds like it takes up a lot of time and energy, you’re right.
As a team leader, your time is no longer yours. Some days the interruptions are never-ending, and when the day is done, you may feel as though you haven’t completed any actual ‘work.’
The reality is that you have; it’s just that the definition of work has changed. The coaching, mentoring, training, questioning, feedback-giving, and conflict-managing is the work now.
The question is whether you will enjoy that kind of work as much as or more than the tactical work of an individual contributor.
What do I want my focus to be?
As an individual contributor, you can show up, plow through your to-do list, and move on to the next task. If you do those tasks well, you’ll earn accolades and be known as an expert at what you do.
As a leader, your focus shifts from the tactical short-term to the strategic long-term.
You’ll still be responsible for completing some tactical work, but completing tasks flawlessly will no longer translate to success.
When I was first promoted to leadership, my boss gave me some sage advice. “You have to get comfortable doing just an average job on some things so that you can dedicate more time to executing the strategic initiatives flawlessly.” Why? Because they make a bigger impact.
This is counterintuitive to many of us because above-average tactical work is usually what got us promoted in the first place. But it just goes to show that, as author Marshall Goldsmith has written,
“What got you here won’t get you there.”
The question is whether you have the discipline to prioritize where you spend your time based on impact, knowing that giving every project equal effort will not lead to equal returns.
What role do I want to play on the team?
Individual contributors are often recognized for high performance and tapped for leadership opportunities because they’ve demonstrated competence in doing whatever it is they do. They had all the answers, knew everything there was to know in their area of expertise and were able to execute on that knowledge.
Being a leader is not about giving your team all the answers; it’s about asking your team the right questions to help them arrive at their own answer.
Giving your team the answers is the easy way out, and doing so essentially guarantees that they will never learn to independently solve a problem without your involvement. Your job is to teach them how to think critically and solve problems in your absence.
The role of a leader is not to dole out answers and directives but to question and coach his/her followers.
Bill Taylor, the co-founder of Fast Company, shares that:
“the most effective business leaders don’t pretend to have all the answers; the world is just too complicated for that. They understand that their job is to get the best ideas from the right people, whomever and wherever those people may be.”
The question is whether you are okay with not having all the answers.
Much like our lives themselves, careers are not necessarily linear. There is no single path that is right for everyone. Just because climbing the corporate ladder seems like the next step, doesn’t mean it is. And, that’s okay.
But, for those of us who prefer being in the business of developing people, focusing on long-term strategy, and asking more questions than we answer, leadership is the dream.
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