Are you a catalyst or an inhibitor?
I love working with leaders who are early in their career. By and large, they have a huge hunger for progress. They want just enough input to get underway, then they look to build good relationships with their people and to get some quick wins. Sometimes that’s based on those questions we pretty much all ask ourselves as leaders (“Do people still like me?” and, “Have I got what it takes?”). Other times it’s about just wanting to get stuck in and see if they can make an impact.
I put most of my energy into this group because I find that – mass generalisation – this is where the most daring, the most adventurous, the most optimistic leaders are. I also know that this group gets low time and resource investment in their development. They come into the role with energy and enthusiasm, and then get swamped by information, processes, procedures and – often – organisational inertia. You know, “that’s just the way things are around here” kind of responses to their frustration about lack of progress.
It doesn’t have to be this way though, and here’s the challenge for you if you are leading someone who is early in their leadership career: Are you a catalyst or an inhibitor?
One leader I’ve been working with (let’s call them Nic) emailed me a couple of weeks back to say they were finding it tough going with their manager. I’m asking Nic to try out different approaches that help them build a strong foundation for making big impact as a leader. We call these experiments in my Potent Leaders programme, and they are all about trying things out when the heat isn’t so intense, with the aim of building in some good practices for when the game really ramps up. Like a walk-through drill that sharpens your skills. Nic’s manager though, is a little less enthused. That manager is seeing risk at every turn. Nic is wanting to try some things that are outside the manager’s comfort zone, and it seems like all the manager can see is loss of control, an unnerving venture into the unknown, and the danger that he’s not seen as the expert holding all the answers anymore. It’s not all from a negative place though. This manager probably also wants to make sure that whatever Nic tries out is successful. That the stretch isn’t too far and that if there’s a grazed knee to be had, Nic isn’t the one that has to suffer it. But Nic is fizzing to get moving, and frustrated, and feeling blocked by the person who has a major impact on their development – the manager.
Nic’s manager is acting as an inhibitor. The potential for Nic to try something new, learn from it, and become a better leader because of it is being slowed down by the manager. At some point, the manager’s approach might end up stopping progress completely, and Nic gives up.
So the challenge is to become a catalyst. To be that manager who builds a strong relationship with Nic, keeps focus on the development journey, and is frequently having the conversation to find out what Nic is trying out, learning, and bringing into their leadership approach that takes them forward on their journey to the kind of leader they want to be.
If you are leading managers who are early in their career and finding their way, what are you doing to be a catalyst for their development?
If you want to be a catalyst for growth with aspiring and early in career leaders you are leading, take a look at my Potent Leaders Coaching Series. This on-the-job approach accelerates leadership development through experiments that have real, positive, sustainable impact in your organisation - but only if you are up for being the catalyst.