Leadership is a process… not a product.

Leadership is a process…not a product.

It’s a series of steps you go through to examine yourself and your environment, to set and make progress towards goals, and to collect feedback constantly.

Leadership is not a one size fits all solution. It’s not following the belief that there is one true path to becoming an effective leader. There are many paths to successfully leading others.

Leadership is a PROCESS that needs to be repeated again and again. It’s difficult, and it takes discipline. It doesn’t come naturally. You won’t feel ‘good’ doing it. You won’t feel ‘authentic.’ But that’s what being an effective leader involves.

It involves updating your understanding of how others perceive you, on a regular basis. Then working through the steps of integrating that feedback into how you see yourself. It then involves using that information to set goals on how to improve your skills. This helps you update your leadership skills from 1.0 to 2.0 to 3.0.

Reflection, awareness, goal setting, ACTION, and gathering feedback. Rinse and repeat. Again and again. Until the day you retire.

This process is difficult for leaders under normal circumstances, but especially in situations of change — things are moving fast, and there’s not a lot of time for reflection. Leaders could be forgiven if they don’t ask for feedback, or just push through an initiative and not give a crap about anybody else — they may even get rewarded for that by their bosses.

In times like this, you need to stick to your process more than ever, even if you feel like you have the least amount of headspace to do it.

Leadership is a process… not a product.