Welcome to this episode of Jack Chat and another tiny lesson in leadership, straight up.
In this episode, I’m going to get a little bit punchy.
I don’t like to get so fiery in my message…but we need to confront an uncomfortable truth about building leadership skills. And until we confront it, we’ll be stuck thinking about leadership development as a punch list of techniques to be mastered.
Jack punching her way through a card marked “Leadership Techniques.” Talking to herself….
Eye contact – check… just look em in the eye
Listening – roger that…learned all the tricks there
Communicating – yeppers…got the checklist
Meeting management – bingo… using my agenda template
Showing respect – oh yah… learned all the best words to use
Hey! Looks like I’m an accomplished leader! ….. and I think I just earned a free sandwich.
Ok, with all due respect to techniques, we don’t really need more leaders with a bunch of techniques, we need leaders who think differently.
Which is why at Slingshot25, we take a deep learning approach to the skills of humility, curiosity, empathy, and believing in others. And yet … we continue to hear people say “yah, yah, yah, those skills are obvious. I got this.”
I’m here to tell you: “You don’t got this.”
Because NO ONE’s got this. Think about it… do you show up to every leadership moment with humility, curiosity, empathy, and belief in others? Unlikely. This is a life-long learning odyssey. Your only goal is “better.” Never done.
And the only way to “better” is to continually revisit, explore, experiment and learn more of what you are capable of doing as a leader of people.
Here are some self-reflection questions to help you continue to work on the essential leadership skills that are never really “done.”
- How much do I believe there is always room for improving my leadership skills?
- What is my routine to continually build the core skills of humility, curiosity, empathy, and belief in others?
- What is my next leadership development action?
Give those questions some thought…and join me again for another chat!