It didn’t take long to figure out the problem, but Elizabeth, a front-line manager and potential executive at a medium-sized company just couldn’t see it. As she went on and on about the issues with her team and layering excuse after excuse about her work environment, I turned to her and asked her a simple question:
“Do you even want to lead?”
Her response pretty much gave her the answer that had been escaping her, “I have never thought about it, I just took the job because of the pay raise and I assumed it was the best next step in my career.”
Turns out she isn’t unlike many people in leadership positions in organizations. They take the position because of their mind and not their heart. While this isn’t all bad, if professionals don’t have a moment where they begin leading from the heart instead of just the mind, they will only ever be a manager instead of a leader.
Tags: leadership