Years ago, I powered through a classically dry leadership book – the type you read to cure insomnia. Out of the more than 350 pages, I’ve held on to just one concept, and that nugget was worth the slog: At every stage of your leadership journey, you must embrace new skills and adjust how you view success.
As a young individual contributor, I loved seeing my ideas adopted and the results of my work, while basking in the positive feedback from my leadership and peers. My career advanced, and I became a leader of people, then a leader of leaders, then head of a functional division within a large company.
With each progressive step, I recalled that book’s advice and consciously reviewed the skills I needed to further develop. More importantly, I reexamined how I defined success. As a typical “Type A”, get-it-done professional, I admit it wasn’t easy. Often, I missed the gratification that came at the end of the day seeing the tangible outcomes of my work.
Thankfully, throughout my journey, I’ve been blessed to work within organizations who invested in my development and privileged to be mentored by amazingly wise leaders: A boss who took me aside a few months into my first supervisory role to give me brutally honest feedback with compassion. A CEO who invited an employee deep within the organization to join her for walks as she openly and generously shared her leadership path. A coach who helped me through challenging organizational changes to ultimately build a team that would soar.
Each in their own way, reiterated the message of that painfully tedious book: as you move your way through the ladder of leadership, you must redefine success. Leading isn’t just about results, it’s about investing in the next generation of leaders.
Reflecting on more than 25 years leading strategists and communicators, let me share three of my own nuggets:
- Create a compelling vision and be abundantly clear about what success looks like.
- Hire great people and invest in their development every single day.
- Lead with empathy, mentor with intention and coach your team generously to maximize their personal and professional potential.
My greatest success isn’t the awards, the titles, the successful campaigns, or even basking in the results achieved through my team’s efforts. What brings me the most joy? I’ve left two leadership positions, because I knew the people I hired, developed, and coached where ready to take the reins. There is nothing more gratifying than to see your investment in people pay off.