Developing a Leadership Mindset

Making the transition from individual contributor to supervisor may be the most challenging move you’ll make in your career.

There are a ton of new skills to learn, but let’s start with a basic need.

From co-worker to team leader.

I was once asked by a teenager I led, “How do you balance being a leader and a friend?”

My response, “Your job is to be their leader, not their friend.”

If you know me by now, I’m all about connecting so let me explain the latter part of the statement above.

What I meant by that is you have a choice to make: be respected or be liked.

• Choosing to be liked rarely includes being respected.

• But if you prioritize being respected (it goes both ways) people may end up liking you in the end (although not guaranteed).

If you’re still confused about it (my bad), here is the difference.

When you get promoted to new manager, executive, etc. your role changes.

With that new role comes new responsibilities.

It includes establishing yourself as a leader to your people.

If you prioritize friendship in a leadership role, people will walk all over you and ultimately you lose respect because of your lack of stance on anything.

• You see, trying to please everyone ends up pleasing no one.

• Your job as a leader doesn’t comprise of a popularity contest.

Part of developing a leadership mindset is knowing at times it gets lonely because you have to be the bearer of bad news.

Taking a stance means you’ll eventually face opposition.

So the quicker you can establish your leadership presence, the better.

Now I’m not saying you can’t be friends with the people you lead.

In fact, I’ve done it most of the time.

But that’s not the same as favoring friendship over leadership.

Your job as a leader is to make the tough decisions, hold people accountable for standards and every now and then fall on the sword for them (aka taking one for the team).

Over the years I’d rather scare a potential leader out of taking a promotion than have them set up for failure.

It’s one of the main reasons why I focus on improving soft skills as a leader.

If you don’t equip yourself correctly, you’ll crack under the weight of responsibility.

That’s why relying on your company to provide management training doesn’t work.

HR doesn’t have the bandwidth to customize a program to meet your needs.

Even though I promote my speaking the most, lately I’ve been doing more coaching with teams and individuals.

• It’s literally like hiring a personal trainer at the gym.

• But instead of working on your body, I help train your mind.

Becoming a new manager is no joke.

And if you’re not reaching out for external support you’ll crumble beneath the stress and expectations.

So if you’re ready to take a new approach, reply to this email about a company talk, workshop or coaching to unlock the 2.0 version of you as a leader.

God Bless,

Scott

P.S. In case you need some visual evidence 😬 watch the video below 👀