What is your secret recipe for leadership?

Don’t forget to experiment.

In my 25 years of leading organizations, businesses, and teams, I have spent a lot of time thinking about how I can be a better leader.  That effort involved a lot of time reading books, learning frameworks, and emulating other leaders to learn about what made them successful.  I thought if only I learned their recipe for success, I could follow their path.  What I have discovered later in my career is that I was wasting a lot of time focused on other’s recipe for success and not my own.

Growing up, my mother cooked meals for our family most every day.  Some of the meals she prepared were based on recipes she found in a magazine or off the back of a spice package.  The very best meals though were the ones that she refined over time.  She experimented with various changes and adapted them.  While many recipes remained in her head, when it came time to share her recipes with me, she took the time to write them down on 3x5 inch notecards.  These small pieces of paper are now some of my most cherished possessions.

To become a great leader, you need to create your own secret recipe.  It starts with understanding yourself.  What are your strengths?  What are your most critical areas for growth?  What are your blind spots?  What are your critical motivations, values, and preferences?  Once you have done that, you can also do the work to understand how your leadership “tastes” to others.  When is your leadership sweet?  When is it savored?  When does it come across as slightly bitter or too salty?  By seeing how others perceive your leadership, you can understand not only your intentions, but your impact.  With that understanding, you can start to experiment.  When should you use more empathy?  When do you need to be more courageous?  When should you take charge and when should you empower?  Over time, the ability to combine a greater awareness of yourself and your impact with small change experiments can lead you to a greater understanding of your own secret recipe for leadership.

My job as your coach is to help you discover your own secret recipe so that eventually you can write it down on your own small notecard.  That clarity will help you lead more confidently while continually identifying areas where you need to continue experimenting, growing, and changing.