5 Signs Your Edge May Be Dulling As A Leader
Are you losing your edge as a leader?
How would you even know?
I’ve asked myself these questions, and if you are a reflective practitioner leading systems and people, I’m not alone.
I have a theory that isn’t wildly popular.
To avoid organizational stagnation, everyone should be required to renew their leadership credibility every 7-10 years.
Why is that?
If you (and I) don’t renew yourself, you rely on what you know and stagnate. The world of work isn’t changing. It has changed, and the motivational core of the people you lead today also has.
Rebooting is vital to keeping your leadership edge.
My observations lead me to believe that far too many humans hold the title of leader long after they’ve genuinely stopped leading. That’s not good for anyone, including the leader, because everyone deserves to live in a community served by legit leaders and teams.
So how do you know if you’re starting to stagnate and dulling your edge?
Here are the 5 signs your edge may be dulling as a leader.
1. You have cul-de-sac meeting conversations
I get that leadership is complex and that some decisions take time, but too often, I’ve observed leaders who look to solve a critical problem in February while still looking at that problem square in the face in September.
Pick your issue: launching a new remote work policy, starting a program partnership, letting someone go, or taking a well-deserved vacation with your spouse…if you’re talking about it for months and doing nothing about it, nobody wins.
Ineffective leaders use talk as an alternative to action. Talking about it is never a substitute for doing it.
And if you’re waiting for certitude, you’ll wait forever.
Want to break the cycle?
Easy. Do something. Even if all you do today is cross something off your list.
You have enough information to clear far more off your list than you think.
Stop talking. Start doing.
2. You dilly-dally to make most choices
I understand that some things should take time before you act.
But just because some things should take time and consideration doesn’t mean everything should take a long time to get done.
One sure sign that you and your organization are on a path toward decline is that things get done slowly. The timeline keeps getting protracted. Longer, and longer, and longer.
Think back to when you started your leadership journey and measure the distance between the locus of idea and the locus of execution.
Compare that to your current pace.
I’m always amazed at how quickly things get done when my team and I have confident synergy around the clarity of our work. The “game-on” switch is activated.
If you measure action in months or years, it’s a sign you’re losing your edge.
You can use size or complexity as an excuse, but that’s still an excuse. Just because some decisions take a long time doesn’t mean every decision should take a long time.
I recently had a vital HPG team member leave (to return to school). It was a challenging position filled with a highly qualified person in two weeks.
We’re also developing a new virtual workshop series from design to development to launch in 8 weeks.
Sure, only some projects are that fast or should be that fast. The question that I want you to consider when you waffle is this:
Is it that you can’t move quickly or won’t move quickly?
- What other information do you need?
- Why are you delaying?
- How will things be different if you wait another week or month?
If you can’t come up with compelling answers to those questions, then act.
At the top of their game, leaders are agile, nimble, and responsive.
Diminished agility is diminished ability.
You deserve to stop scurrying in confusion and busyness.
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Without a new strategy and approach, it's easy to continue to:
➜ Sacrifice self and family on the altar of work
➜ Overcommit and underdeliver
➜ Be busy but no longer brilliant.
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It’s time to change that by implementing a strategy that works.
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3. You are plum out of ideas
You can’t lead anything significant from your back foot. It’s a leader’s job to forge into the future; you need a steady stream of fresh ideas and perspectives.
New thinking leads to new possibilities and a better storyline.
When you and I started our leadership careers, we had more ideas than we knew what to do with, right?
You’re losing your edge because those ideas are starting to run dry.
There are typically three reasons you’re running out of ideas.
- Your lack of ideas happens because you’re too busy working IN your system that you don’t have time to work ON your system. There’s just no margin to breathe and think creatively.
- A second is that you’ve stopped reading books, listening to podcasts, or attending conferences. Essentially, you’ve become the Dead Sea - all output with almost no fresh input.
- A final reason your ideas are in short supply is that you’ve built an echo chamber, surrounding yourself with like-minded leaders who believe what you believe, think the way you think, and don’t challenge your intellect.
So…if you want to turn this around, and create a little more margin, here’s how). Create the conditions to learn again, jump out of your echo chamber, and listen to some fresh voices.
Leaders who learn better are leaders who lead better.
4. You’re not asking enough questions
Leaders are constantly tempted to push (their views) rather than pull (the opinions of others).
Know-it-all-ism crushes team engagement and the leader’s overall influence.
The best leaders are usually not defined by the answers they give but by the questions they ask.
The longer you’re in charge of people and systems, the more curious you should become.
One tell-tale sign of a leader who has dulled their edge is that they stop asking questions.
- Sometimes it’s because they think they know all the answers.
- Other times, it’s because they’ve lost interest and are no longer curious.
Both are deadly and diminish the influence of leaders.
So, add more question marks to your sentences next time you're in a meeting.
5. You’re growing a self-protective shell
The best leaders are VIA leaders.
✅ V – Vulnerable
✅ I – Intentional
✅ A - Authentic
And the opposite of VIA is self-preserved.
Self-preserved leaders rarely lead well.
Being self-preserved means, you close yourself off new ideas, feign all attempts to help you improve, and dismiss new ideas and directions.
How do you know when you are self-preserving?
When you have a logical, rational, and objective reason why every new idea won’t work might be a good clue.
A regular stream of self-preservation not only shuts down the people around you (they’ll eventually stop talking to you or leave) but also shuts down your future potential.
How do you combat self-preservation?
Simple: Next time someone shares an idea with you or feedback with you that you’re tempted to deflect or reject, don’t. Instead, utter two words: thank you.
Then go away and reflect on the idea and loop back to the person who offered it and shares with them:
- What you liked about it
- What concerns you
- What considerations will be made
Open-minded (and hearted) leaders usually have a bright future. Defensive leaders don’t.
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