I heard a leadership coach talking about being an effective CEO last week.
She talked passionately about creating a personal brand – defining and promoting what you stand for as an individual.
Leadership, for her, was mostly defined by the perception you create in others’ minds.
There’s nothing wrong with self-promotion. Leaders need to position themselves to get noticed, if they want to get promoted.
What goes wrong is when promotion or attention of the leader become the objective, not the results of the team they lead.
Every hour spent on the perception of what you do is an hour not spent on what you actually do.
Good leaders must be able to make decisions that favor outcomes over their own ego.
We’ve all met the leader who relentlessly self-promotes. Who gets excited by things that effect their image more than by things that effect their business.
Who makes a bad decision simply because it gets them attention.
Like all leadership traits, self-promotion is a habit that’s built over a long time.
So too is it’s counterpart, conscious humility.
Humility is not just a trait exhibited by quiet retiring types. In fact it’s easy for them.
Humility can, and should be, consciously engaged by everyone across the personality spectrum.
Regardless of your personality type, choosing to not be visible is good leadership development exercise that should be undertaken regularly.
Focus on achievement, not attention.
Try it.
You’ve thought about something so much you’ve made it a mission, You’re doing something about it, even taking some risks. You’ve set priorities.
Was getting a medal for what you do one of those priorities? Assuming it wasn’t, now do something that nobody knows you’re doing.
Choose to not get credit for something.
Give it away quietly, or let someone else take the credit.
It doesn’t have to be at work, it can be at home, community or friends. But it has to become a habit.
When you hide or give away credit you discover the joy of achievement, separate to the joy of attention.
More importantly, you’ll actually get better results when it’s not just about you.
“..good leaders must be able to make decisions that favor outcomes over their own ego….”
Is there something regularly you do that delivers “wins”?
Solving a problem, kicking a goal, winning a race, passing an exam, fixing something broken?
How often do you get credit from others for it, even simple encouragement? Great job, thanks for that?
How often do you choose to do them without anyone noticing?
Do you ever just pass the credit to someone else and watch them get the attention?
When you do that does it feel different?
Is it the result that you’re happy about or the attention you get from the result?
Does the result matter?
Do those you work with prefer attention on you or sharing the credit?
Do you have to get credit for everything?
Why does humility help?
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“I might be wrong, but at least I’ve thought about it…”