Leadership is easy.
I know, I’ve spent the last few years telling everyone how difficult it is. But bear with me while I explain why I think I bought into thinking it was hard for so long.
There are a couple of big parts to this.
First, we’ve made it complicated.
We’ve got frameworks, models, matrices, capabilities, competencies. I love a framework – but we’ve gone too far.
Second, we’ve created a narrative about it.
Just like we’ve told everyone that change is happening quicker than ever, that we’re busier than ever. ‘Leadership is hard’, we tell leaders.
We’ve built an entire industry around the idea that leadership is hard. The result? We’ve developed leaders that can’t do the things they perceive to be difficult, not because they actually are, but because we’ve told them they are. Conversations are a great example.
The ability to have good, honest, and direct conversations is core to a successful business. If we can’t have them, then we’ll always have a peer who undermines us. We’ll have a CEO who doesn’t hear the full truth from her team. People will continue to underperform at the detriment of the business.
On the surface, these feel like hard conversations, and as a result, they often don’t happen. And the longer they go unsaid, the more the cost to the business accumulates.
Hard conversations are actually soft.
We layer on top anxiety about the relationship, worries about getting it right, or worrying about the worst-case scenario. Strip away all this rubbish and you’ll find most difficult conversations are actually quite simple. We just need to say what we’ve observed and get curious about what’s going on.
Most C-suite leaders get to the top by being decisive, knowledgeable, and strong. These traits serve them well in lots of different situations.
But often, they end up getting in the way. They need to be right so they can’t change their mind in public. They need to be strong so they don’t ask for help. They need to be decisive so they can’t say they don’t know.
Leadership isn’t hard because the problems are hard. It’s hard because the job keeps asking us to do things that feel threatening to our identity.
Leadership is easy.
Of course, it requires skill, courage, and judgement. But we only need to make small changes to be more impactful.
And if something feels a bit hard, that’s data to say it’s probably worthwhile doing it.
We have to stop convincing ourselves it’s easier to do nothing, and instead take action. Because if we don’t take that first step, leading really does get hard.
Leadership gets easier when you have the right thinking partner alongside you. If you’re ready to go beyond reflective conversations and into real, lasting change, find out more about Beyond Coaching at HEX.
