Your Leadership Matters

Your leadership still matters. Your presence, your care, and the way you tend to your organization and team matter. In fact, they matter more than ever. Yes, action is needed, but it may not be the action you think. Often, what is most needed is not something new, but a return to what you already know to be true about leadership.

Tend to yourself first

We hear it on every flight for a reason: put your own oxygen mask on before assisting others. Some leaders have an extraordinary capacity to endure. They push through difficulty without pause and pride themselves on their resilience.

I once had a therapist describe my capacity for distress as dumpster-sized. At the time, I felt proud. It took me years to understand there is nothing virtuous about waiting until a dumpster is full before emptying it. Do you know how much effort it takes to empty a dumpster? It requires heavy equipment. The longer you wait to tend to yourself, the harder it becomes. Rest, stillness, and thoughtful partnership are not indulgences for leaders. They are essential. If you want to lead well over time, you must care for the person doing the leading: YOU.

Let yourself be seen as a work in progress

I once supported an organization where any message delivered publicly went through endless rounds of review. By the time it reached the staff, it was polished to the point of being hollow. Meaning was lost. Connection was broken.

Every organization has its own norms. Some require polish, others invite informality. Regardless of where you lead, people need to experience you as human. Let yourself be seen learning in real time. If your organization doesn’t allow for that kind of vulnerability publicly, find trusted peers where you can work things out before they are ready for broad consumption. When you share success, tell the story of how you got there. Name what you didn’t know. Ask others what they think. If you want to lead an organization where innovation is possible, you have to make it safe to experiment and to fail. Let yourself be seen finding the ways that don’t work.

If everything is important, nothing is

Many mission-driven organizations, driven by the passion for their cause, struggle with taking on too much. The need is real, and the desire to respond is genuine. At the same time, resources are finite, and impact diminishes when priorities are unclear and work is under-resourced.

In a session where I was guiding a set of dedicated leaders through a prioritization exercise, the most senior leader in the room had every item marked as a top priority in their first draft. The rest of the leadership team sat quietly disheartened. They had been asked to make difficult choices through the lens of what was actually possible to achieve. The pressure they felt from their leader’s lack of discernment was familiar. We moved through the moment and got where we needed to be, but the effects lingered. While I’m encouraging you to allow others to see you as a work in progress, I’m also asking you to make sure you’re ready to do and support the work you’re asking your team to do.

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This is the real work of leadership, preparing ourselves to do the very thing we are asking of our teams and doing the internal work before expecting it of others. It starts at the beginning again. Tend to yourself first, so you can be learning out loud, and getting yourself ready for what you’re asking your team to step into.