The Power of Normal
Lets talk about some new ideas that have been forming inside my head regarding leadership. There are so many good leadership books out there. I have read so many in anticipation for "The Day".
I have built up so many things in my life waiting for "The Day". What day you ask?
The Day I make it and can become a leader. I watch so many people be leaders and they don't really want to. All I want since I entered the workforce is to become a leader. I want to lead people not because I want to tell them what to do. I want to become a leader so I can, grow with them, enable them, show them what they can be. Watch them grow into something more.
Healthy things grow, and growing things change
Photo by Musa Ortaç from Pexels
Yet, I keep waiting for this day. I have worked in several departments. Received several Top Performer awards. I have expressed my desire for being a leader. I have written plans, shared goals. Asked to be given opportunities (Which I have been given). Yet, 5 years down the road I am Titleless. I have no real Leadership Title. 😢
It was a few months ago that I started realizing something. I realized the true skill and true power of what a titleless leader can accomplish. So I wanted to dedicate a space on my blog to chat about this idea of being titleless.
So many of my friends have addressed the fact that I should change jobs because of my lack of upward mobility. I think that is 100% fair in consideration. If your employer is not treating you fairly, find someone who will. Put in the work! Consider becoming a project manager (I have a podcast series about that, check it out!) 💪
Let me unpack some of my raw crockpotted ideas (These are ideas that sit in my brain for a long time).
The Benefit of Titleless Leadership:
It takes more skill to lead a team of peers
It gives you more drive to find why a team member is not performing
It enables you to talk with "peer to peer" skills
Let me start to unpack some of the ideas listed above. A title is something that in society we have given power. It is something that we believe in, or a structure we respect.
So let us consider a scenario:
Your boss comes to you and says, "Jesse I need your performance to improve because of______" 🙀
VS.
The titleless leader comes to you and says, "Jesse I noticed your performance is dropping, what can I do to assist?"
The boss who has the title will get an outcome (Usually 😉). The staff will say okay, my boss is disappointed in me and I need to step up and get this done.
The motivators for the staff are removed however if a peer (Titleless leader) approaches them. Yet if the Titleless leader is able to get that affected staff members performance to improve, it is likely that the Titleless leader had more skill, more psych trust, more buy in than the boss ever will. 😲.
The Titleless leader will put in more thought and consideration about the needed conversation. They will have more awareness of the staff's Emotions. They will come prepared to the meeting or in the email / conversation.
The boss will lean on the crutch (Often times) that they are my employee, so they will listen, and I will speak. Or even if you are an excellent leader, they still have a barrier in conversation. Building the Psych trust is so much harder with a boss, than with a peer.
Why are we waiting for Title's to make a splash 💦! We can now work on our skills and grow our leadership muscles. 💪 So if you are untitled I applaud you 👏. Don't wait to become a leader, I beg of you. Start your training now, because when the day comes it will make the integration of leadership that much easier for you.
Maybe becoming a Titleless Leader will be what one day earns you a Title.
The Spark for this idea? Watch Simon Sineks Talk on, "We only deserve a styrofoam cup"
Comment Your Favorite Leadership Books!