Are You a Leader?

Over the years I’ve observed professionals in all industries assume that in order to be a leader, one must be a people-manager - meaning a manager of people, someone who has direct reports and someone who at least once a year is required to assess how the individual(s) he or she manages is performing. Oh joy. :)

In my experience there are those who manage and then there are those who lead. Managing is a title. Leading is a process, a mindset and a presence.

I’ve witnessed people at the top of an org chart, manage but not lead. And on the flip-side I’ve seen people who do not have a single direct-report lead a team to evolve and claim victory.

So what makes a leader a leader? I have news for you.

If you have followers, you are a leader.

If someone, anyone looks to you and takes a queue on what to say, what to do, and how to show up. You are leader.

A leader does more than guide and or manage a person or a team. A leader can make an impact on people that go beyond the workplace. Think about all of the leaders who have made an impression on you and your life, who have inspired you beyond that one interaction, that one email, or that single moment you observed them in their element.

So whether you have direct reports or not doesn’t define you as leader. Don’t underestimate the influence you have. Don’t underestimate how the energy you emanate can shape and shift another’s. It does. It can have a lasting impact. It matters.

How do you put your pants on?

I’ve been in HR for 20+ years in different roles at a variety of levels - from entry level, to senior level to leading a singular team to multiple teams and there is one thing that I’ve learned that helps to push me each day. That all leaders put their pants on the same way as everyone else. I’ve been a Human Capital Partner to leaders who have asked me to join them in a conference room so that they can practice a presentation they are scheduled to give to the entire enterprise. I’ve bared witness to leaders using comic relief when their anxiety of speaking in front of a large group hits. I’ve come to learn the nervous twitches, and non-verbals of leaders who are pressed to make an important decision.

My takeaway from all of this and being a leader myself? Is that, if they can do it, so can I. What do you have to lose? What holds you back? Who is to say that someone’s title means that they know better, and that they have no fear? I guarantee you all leaders, at all levels have similar internal blockers, they get nervous, they have fears and they question their capabilities. But that doesn’t stop them. They keep pushing forward. And the best leaders? The best leaders recognize the opportunity to learn from those around them, from the experiences that don’t go quite as planned. We as human beings apply the labels, “mistake” and “failure”, when things don’t go our way, though I challenge you to pause, elevate your awareness, and ask yourself how true is that? If you are learning and growing from said, “mistake” or '“failure” then aren’t you elevating in your capabilities? How can an experience be a mistake or failure, if you are taking something away and learning from it? No one is born knowing. We are all born with the ability to experience. To learn. To grow. Every “mistake” is an opportunity to do it again, and to do it better, from experience.

My point in all this? Don’t get in your own way of being the leader you are striving to be. Don’t let your fears of a “mistake” or “failure” get in your way. Realize that the feelings of fear, and anxiousness, are normal. Leaders at all levels experience them. It would be odd if they didn’t. Embrace those feelings. It means that you care, and it means that you are human. It means that you, too, put your pants on one leg at a time.