To Get to the Next Level You Must Have Passion for a Destination at a Much Greater Intensity Than Your Desire to Remain Comfortable.

A few entries back, I wrote an entry entitled “The Last Obstacle to Executive Development = The Executive.”  This provocative sentiment was not in any way meant to be disrespectful to those who do not choose to proactively engage in their development as leaders.  A core principle to our work is to respect a person where they are while at the same time encouraging them to reach deeper to enrich their capacity.  For the most part, I think leaders who do not take their own development seriously do so for what appear to be very good reasons.

First, they have been promoted to a leadership position and therefore  they believe that they have everything they need to succeed or they are supposed to know everything already.  Second, they feel they have arrived and except for, possibly, their boss and/or the board – they do not need to be held accountable for how they lead anyone at a peer level or below.  Third, they realize there is some discomfort and disruption that comes from challenging old habits of thinking, feeling and behaving.  They have a concern that adding development to their already crowded schedule – might slow them down or worse hurt their results.  Finally, because the leadership development journey is so personal and experiential – the journey naturally provides more questions than answers – at least in the beginning.  Certainly the development path is not as clear cut as their P&L, sales numbers, and other goals they are expected to accomplish.  In fact, to those whose awareness is far away from the leadership mindset – the whole development process feels “touchy-feely” and has no rigor to it.

These beliefs are rarely conscious.  And most executives and  organizations rarely challenge them.  The problem is when someone in a leadership position refuses to engage in a more proactive development journey – they are cheating themselves as well as their organization because no matter how good anyone is there is always room to expand one’s capacity and impact.  Yet, in order to step onto the development path – a leader must clearly understand where they are going, have some level of passion for the longer term outcome and be able to honestly assess what they most need to lead people there.  When you think about it there is nothing “touchy-feely” there! (more…)