When did you become a leader?

It wasn’t when you got promoted; when you suddenly had “Manager” after your name. It may not even have been when you got a coveted “Director” title. For me, I was convinced for a long time that “if only someone would promote me to Director, I would be an amazing leader.”

But the hard truth is you become a leader when you decide that’s what you want to be and show up to work as a leader, regardless of title or position. At least that's the hard truth I learned.

Leadership has nothing to do with a promotion or a title. Leadership is how you show up for the people that work with you (around you, or for you) every day.

When you were promoted to a people manager, it was because you were an excellent individual contributor.

But that manager title changes all the rules. You knew how to solve problems. Now your job is to create the conditions where other people can solve problems. You knew how to be accountable for output. Now you’re accountable for outcomes you don’t personally produce. All the instincts that made you an amazing individual contributor – jump in, fix it, know the answer, take ownership – can actually start working against you.

But the beauty of leadership is that you can practice it (just like yoga) every day. You can encourage accountability, you can manage your own capacity, you can teach other people what you know. None of that requires a title.  

So ask yourself this: What is keeping you from being a leader?

• Am I waiting for a title or permission to lead?
• Do I solve problems for people, or help them learn to solve them?
• Do I create accountability, or quietly pick up the slack?
• Am I making the people around me better?
• What am I still doing because I’m good at it, rather than because I should be doing it?
• When I know the answer, do I always have to be the one who gives it?

If you started acting like the leader you want to become today, what would you do differently?

If you’re not sure what you’d do differently—or you know, but you’re not sure how to get there—COG offers 1:1 coaching for new leaders. Reach out today and ask for the help you need to get where you want to go.