This week I had an epiphany based on trends I’m seeing in business that can lead to destabilization of your business. Small and medium size businesses continually elevate subject matter experts with some management experience and hope the essential skills of leadership will catch up. And then we look sideways at that person in the corner who raises their hand, asks well thought out questions, may even be the squeaky wheel and we “manage” their presence vs. realize they’re a future leader. Failure to recognize leadership in your organization or even a system to evolve leadership in an organization will lead to a leadership desert; leaving C-suite leaders in wonderment why their business is not thriving.
Just this week while facilitating a workshop at a client, a few people who were lower in the hierarchy were rather quiet; letting the discussion continue with more senior leaders in the room. When there was a pause, they came forth with the most profound statements and questions that completely turned the conversations in a different direction from sometimes rabbit holes we were falling into. While I was successfully brought our workshop to technical conclusion; I realized there were quiet leaders in the room for which most leaders will not recognize them. We finished our business and these individuals went back to work. However, on my next visit, I’m going to suggest we flip the accountability of the project to those individuals and we are in service to these leaders.
Leaders are all around us, but we lack the lens to see them. When we don’t see them and take the time to evolve their inherent leadership skills we run into situations for which business will lack the talent and the work results ebb and flow. The Leadership Desert is a real thing and we need to be talking more about it to raise awareness and have the courage to take action.
If this is a challenge for you as a C-Suite Leader or you see people on your team struggling with this exact same issue, but you don’t have the capacity or capability to address, please have the courage to leverage a support system. The Drop In CEO community can help you.
Drop in to my next Drop In CEO Collective offered on March 20th and click here for your exclusive invite to this offering. This forum is for C-Suite Leaders of today and tomorrow. Mostly the Leaders of Tomorrow are coming for which they’re gleaning so much help to them get into the C-Suite. I invite C-Suite leaders to attend because a) you may gain some insights for yourself and b) you may see this as the place for your leaders of tomorrow to gain the skills they need.
It may be the best investment of 50 minutes towards resolving the Leadership Desert.
Let me know; I’d love to support you.
Until then, I wish you much success-Deb