It is lonely at the top. Leaders bear the weight of expectations, not just from others, but also from themselves.
Meet Jason, a seasoned leader who is not often creating the best outcomes. Deep-down, he battles with decision-making paralysis, a lack of action orientation, and fear of taking risks.
Do you, as a leader, have:
– Decision Paralysis: find yourself frequently unable to make crucial decisions?
– Poor Action Orientation: Are you among the less-than-successful leaders who know they should act but fail to act?
– Risk Aversion: Does the fear of failure keep you from making decisions?
– Perfectionism: Do you find yourself wanting everything just right, often failing to complete projects on time and within budgeted costs?
– Complexity Bias: Do you make things more complicated than they need to be?
– Poor Emotional Intelligence: Do you struggle to manage people effectively because your emotions get in the way?
– Team Dynamics: Do you struggle to cultivate a cohesive and effective team?
Can you relate to some of these? You’re not alone. The 4 biggest reasons that negatively affect the performance of leaders, based on 500+ responses from less-than-successful people and 10 years of research, are:
1. Poor Action Orientation: 94% struggle with taking timely action.
2. Perfectionism: 89% want everything to be perfect.
3. Novelty Seeking: 87% frequently shift focus (constantly chase shiny objects).
4. Risk Avoidance: 81% avoid taking risks to avoid the potential for failure – the need to be right often comes at the expense of taking action.
Solving the Leadership Paradox:
You can’t leverage your enablers or mitigate your disablers unless you what they are. Random opinions, platitudes and generalities that are not actionable are useless. I’ve identified 18 factors that affect the success of leaders like you. Use the link and discount code below to get a personal report of your personal enablers and disablers in minutes.
iSmart & Successful Assessment: Identify your barriers and strengths. Take the assessment at https://www.businessthinking.com/assessments/is-your-smartness-enabling-or-disabling-your-success/. Use discount code iS&S-12Groups to get your personal report ($198 value) for FREE.
There are many ways you can work on leveraging your enablers and mitigating your disablers:
1. Get the upcoming book: iSmart & Successful – The Playbook to Turn Ambitions into Achievements. It is based on real data, personal experiences of an MIT alum and former Fortune50 executive, and a decade of research.
2. Group Coaching: Expert coaching plus collaborative problem-solving and accountability with a community on the same journey.
3. One-on-One Coaching: Expert coaching and personalized action plans.
4. Monthly Book Club: Once the book is out, participate in monthly discussions on my latest thinking, success stories, worksheets, tools and insights.
Your next level of leadership is waiting to be unlocked. Don’t let your barriers hold you back.
Remember, knowing your barriers is step one. Taking action changes the game.