THE ART OF LETTING THINGS GO: Smart Career Advice for New Leaders

There are certain behaviours that can have a big impact on the careers of new leaders. The following outlines one such behaviour.

Leaders can be very tuned in to hearing feedback about how they are doing. This is especially true for those new to leadership and management roles. The messages that they hear will often be mixed. Some will be positive, and others less so.

What kind of messages and feedback are you particularly sensitive to? 

Are you more tuned in to:

• Hearing where you are not doing so well, or
• More aware of listening for positive statements about your effectiveness?

If you hear the negative more easily, you could be working with Imposter Syndrome. This is the term used to describe the way someone might feel about their role. They can have the sense that they are an imposter in the role; that they don’t actually have the skills required to do their job well, and there might have been a mistake when they were hired or promoted.

Do you recognise this in yourself?

I have found that more women than men sit in this space. But the issue is a very real one. It can have a powerful impact on your ability to lead or manage well.

In the last blog in this Leadership Careers series: Have You Killed Anybody Today, I talked about the tools that you need in your leadership toolbox.

Being able to tune into hearing the things that will empower you as a leader, and tune out from the things that hold you back all comes down to learning how to let some things go and not sweat the small stuff. (Using the phrase from Richard Carlson’s well-known book)

But how do you work out what is the small stuff? Because some of the small stuff can be quite important when it comes down to being effective. It might be as simple as asking yourself a set of questions to help you work it out e.g.

• How important is this?
• Will this have an impact on me being able to achieve my work goals?
• Can I make a difference in this situation?
• Is this really about my job, or am I being overly sensitive?

Your questions need to have enough grunt to them in order to give you the answers you need to hear.

Another way of working out what to let go of or what to take notice of might be to filter your options through a simple grid like the one below.

Whatever process you adopt, pay particular attention to repetitive ways of thinking that undermine either your decision-making processes, or your ability to take action. Being trapped by thinking that is unhelpful will undermine your ability to lead well.

If you want to be a more effective leader and you’re ready to make it happen, phone or email now.

Janet Tuck

Career Management Specialist
M: +64 21 526 387
E: janet@careerclinic.co.nz