Have You Killed Anybody Today?

I bet that title got your attention. This statement was made at one of my recent workshops for women transitioning into leadership roles. I called the Workshop ‘Blueprint for Success’. It was loosely based around a paraphrase of the title of a Marshall Goldsmith book:

“What Got You There, Won’t Make You Successful Here”

To be successful in a leadership role requires a different way of operating and using a different set of skills than for previous roles.

To be successful in your career as a new leader, you need to have a clear understanding of four things:

What’s in your leadership toolbox:

What you bring in terms of skills, strengths, and style that will empower you in your new role to be a leader.

What the new role actually requires you to do:

What’s going on in your organisation, what kind of situations are you facing, and what are the challenges and opportunities that exist.

What support you need:

This means establishing new relationships and negotiating for resources and people to get the job done.

What you need to add to your leadership toolbox:

What you need to learn in order to be effective, and then choosing how to position yourself for the next role beyond where you are now. Then you need to put together a plan that includes details about the ‘Who, What, When, Where, and How’ of essential tasks that need to be done.

No one expects you to be a Wonder Woman or Superman when you are new to leadership. But there are a lot of potential danger zones that can derail your efforts early on. One of these is attempting to do too much too soon.

Which is where my title comes in. All the women in my workshop agreed that it was important for leaders to learn how to let some things go and not sweat the small stuff in the early days of a new leadership role. Indeed, this advice applies to all leaders at any stage. One woman shared the questions she asks herself when things have turned to custard:

Have I killed anybody? Has anybody died?

She has found that this helps her to get perspective about challenging situations, then pick herself up and regroup in order to get things moving again in the right direction. Wise words indeed.

Are you new to leadership or aspiring to get there with your next career move?