When will you know that you have really “arrived” in your leadership career? Dad constantly reminded me that leadership is not a place you get to. Leadership is a journey you live.
The last time our children were locked in a car with us was a long weekend trip from Kansas City to Chicago when both of them were in high school. Because my husband hates interstates and loves to “see what’s out there,” we meandered our way north on side roads. We stopped in Ottumwa, Iowa, to see where the M*A*S*H character Radar O’Reilly was from. We visited Riverside, Iowa, to see where Captain James Tiberius Kirk will be born on March 22, 2228. We went to Dyersville, Iowa, to lob a ball or two on the Field of Dreams, and we stopped in Rockford, Illinois, to see the rock men guardians who guard the ford of the Rock River. We did all of this before we finally pulled into Chicago. What would have normally been an 8-hour drive took us almost 16 hours, and the kids were so ready to be done with the adventure! But what a great experience it was. What do we now know about Iowa and all those other places that we will never forget?
Are we there yet? That annoying mantra uttered by every child on a long-distance trip sums up the way many people see leadership—as a destination.
Unfortunately, if you have that mindset, once you do obtain a leadership position, you will stop working for it and working at it. If, on the other hand, you look at leadership as a consistent journey, then you’ll always be taking the opportunity to be flexible, to learn, to see things from a different perspective than you expected, and you’ll be able to visualize “what’s out there” for your team.
Read Lauren’s Whitepaper on The Nine Essentials of Significant Leadership.
