leadership potential – Doug Dickerson on Leadership

Never interrupt someone doing something you said couldn’t be done. – Amelia Earhart

This past week our nation and the world celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first moonwalk by Neil Armstrong.

Years before that historic moonwalk, President John F. Kennedy in a rousing speech at Rice University declared:

“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.”

Kennedy’s speech at Rice on September 12, 1962, was not the first time he referenced going to the moon or rallying the nation around this ambitious goal. He had done so the year before in a speech to Congress and was a driving force behind its realization even though he would not live to see it.

But for me, the most inspiring part of the speech was not the articulation of the goal of going to the moon. It was embracing that goal and others, “not because they are easy but because they are hard”. That, to me, was the inspiring challenge of a past generation, and is one we need to rediscover in ours. Embracing the hard.

The quest for many is the easy route – it’s the path of least resistance. Embracing the hard is, well, hard. It demands more of us – more than at times we feel we are capable of giving. Shakespeare put it this way, “ We know what we are, but know not what we may be”. Embracing who we may be means letting go of the easy and embracing the hard.

This is true in our personal lives and in our leadership. Embracing the seemingly impossible challenges and willfully opting for the hard paths flies in the face of conventional thinking. Consider these three perspectives:

The hard things in leadership: What it’s not

-Embracing the hard things in leadership is not about embracing hard things as if you have some martyr syndrome.

-It’s not blind ambition without regard to risks and sacrifices that will need to be made.

-It’s not making things hard, it’s doing hard things in a smart way.

The hard things in leadership: What it is

Ralph Martson said it this way, “Don’t lower your expectations to meet your performance. Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations”. This is the secret to doing the hard things in leadership.

-It’s about raising expectations to such a high level that your people become passionate about wanting to do the hard things.

-It’s about redefining what success looks like. And it will never look the same again when you embrace the hard things.

-It’s about bringing out the best in ourselves and in others. Knowing what you are truly capable of achieving is not found in doing the easy things. Your leadership is not forged in the valley, but in the fire.

The hard things in leadership: The cost

Many Americans during the 60’s opposed the idea of sending a man to the moon. They argued that the money could be better spent on other things.

-The toll was great for those who worked on the Apollo mission. The divorce rate, in particular, was very high.

-When you choose to do the hard things in leadership versus the easy – it will come at a cost. Not everyone will take the journey with you.

-Some are comfortable being “settlers” – let them be.

-Some are just not willing to pay the price. Don’t let them dissuade you. You must do as Ben Horowitz suggested and “embrace the struggle”. When you do then a whole new world of possibilities opens up before you.

While it may go against the grain of the current way you think about leadership – embrace the hard things. You will be a better leader for it.

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When leaders of organizations articulate and live their values, they drive them throughout the organization, and they become a way of being. – Howard Behar

Tune in to any talk in leadership circles today and you will hear all about living up to your potential. We instill it in our children from the day they start school and suit up for Little League. We remind them again at graduation and send them off to the real world full of promise and the hope that they will live up to the potential and hopes we placed in them.

But what happens when the realities of the real world sink in and living up to one’s potential becomes a dead end chase? Is there a way forward? Is living up to one’s potential still attainable?

Gallup research reported on in Inc. magazine says that “70% of employees aren’t working to their full potential. Adding insult to injury, 52% of those are just sleepwalking through their day.” The article states, “When a company raises employee engagement levels across every business unit through great management of people, it leads to higher profitability, productivity, and lower turnover.”

This sounds reasonable enough at first glance so where is the disconnect? Let’s take a closer look. “And therein lies the problem.” the article continues, “ to remedy the 70% crisis you first have to find those managers. Gallup reports that companies fail to choose the right management talent for the job a staggering 82 percent of the time.”

When companies fail to find the right managers 82 percent of the time, and when 70 percent of employees aren’t working to their full potential, then perhaps it’s time to rethink our approach as to what management potential looks like. Here are a few ideas for consideration.

Potential must be measured against values, not skills

Perhaps one of the reasons why so many companies hire the wrong managers is that they are looking at skill sets when they should be looking at values. Managers without a clear set of values such as honesty, integrity, trustworthiness, etc., can only lead for so long and take the company so far. Without a clear set of values in place, that leader has no true north, and the people have a leader with limited capacity. Click To Tweet

Potential and leadership development go hand in hand

Without question, companies want to hire highly qualified managers who can add value to the organization. No company purposefully sets out to hire the wrong managers. But along the way, companies are missing the mark. The good news is that it can be fixed. A great starting place is in leadership development.

Some time ago, Jack Zenger writing in The Harvard Business Review shed light on the fact that we wait too long to train our leaders. His research points out that the average age of managers who receive leadership training is 42, but the average of supervisors in these firms is 33. Zinger states, “It follows then, that if they’re not entering leadership training programs until they’re 42, they are getting no leadership training at all as supervisors. And they’re operating within the company untrained, on average, for over a decade.”

And this is the disconnect between someone not living up to their potential and someone with it. Leadership makes the difference.

Your potential and capacity is not defined by others

The premise of the Inc. article states the reason people are not living up to their potential is that companies are promoting the wrong people to management. While the argument has some merit, I believe that the premise lacks clarity.

To be sure, bad managers can be a drag on the culture of the organization. But it doesn’t have to be a deal breaker. You can reach your potential without them. Click To Tweet It’s no excuse for “sleep-walking through the day”, and opting not to perform at your best. Commit yourself to growing, learning, and developing your skills and your potential will be realized.

To be sure, bad managers can be a drag on the culture of the organization. But it doesn’t have to be a deal breaker. You can reach your potential without them. Click To Tweet

When your potential is grounded in your values, in leadership development, and individual responsibility, you can certainly reach all of your potentials. It will make a world of difference for you and to the organization you serve.

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Doug Dickerson on Leadership

Tag: leadership potential

Embracing The Hard Things in Leadership

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