The further you climb up the professional ladder, the less support you get.
It’s strange isn’t it. The longer you work with an organization and the more responsibility you have, the less support options you have.
Early in a role, HR has your back, you meet new colleagues who can help you navigate new systems and processes, and of course you have one or two leaders who will meet with you regularly.
But after you’ve been at a job for a while and moved into a leadership role, you have less colleagues and more employees. You have less leaders you can reach out to and some of them start to feel less like colleagues and more like competitors.
The same is often true for entrepreneurs. When we launch out on our own, one of the things we leave behind is the support system typically baked-in to a role within an organization.
So how can leaders and entrepreneurs find the support and collaboration they need?
Back in March I wrote a newsletter titled “Leadership is Lonely”. It was a quote from a client of mine who is founder and CEO of his 31 year old company. As an entrepreneur he found that he craved conversation with someone as a means of processing what was going on in his life. Not just the business decisions he was making, but personal decisions as well.
Some of his goals in working with me were to get out of the day-to-day operations so he needed to hire someone new for that role. He was also thinking through different options of selling some or all of his company. And, as he was getting older, he also wanted to be out in the world having fun, traveling and enjoying what he called his “4th quarter.”
But none of these conversations were appropriate for his employees, most of whom are in their twenties. His wife and daughter had been hearing about his work for over thirty years and weren’t super interested in hearing any more.
So what are we supposed to do when leadership becomes lonely and we have no friendlies in sight?
I have a family member who has been a YPO member for several decades now and sites joining as one of the most important business decisions he’s ever made. His company has been doing incredibly well for many years, a direct result of his membership in and ability to lean on the guidance of his YPO forum.
I have several friends in EO. Mixed reviews as far as business impact goes, BUT they are all still involved and don’t experience the lonely leader syndrome my client used to experience.
Partnerships are another way to work with this problem, assuming it’s a healthy business partnership… which means it has to be a healthy personal relationship.
Having a partner can lessen the stress and and often overwhelming sense of responsibility that being a solo leader/entrepreneur carry with it.
Then there is my chosen path which is to keep things intentionally small. A practice instead of a business. This doesn’t mean I work less, but I’m not trying to scale up more shit to feel responsible for, like employees and everything that comes with leadership. You can start a Company of One and run a profitable and satisfying business without all the hassle of scaling.
Finally, and yes, this is a plug for my work…but you can find a coach or a mentor. Someone whose job is to listen to you. Someone who has been trained to ask powerful questions as a means of helping you solve your problems.
If you’re a leader or a entrepreneur, the buck stops with you. Personal development isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a must. Especially if you have employees or colleagues.
The curiosity to dig deep, to be a student of life, and a willingness to do the work necessary to evolve are keys to doing great work WHILE living a good life.
Elite athletes have coaches, hedge fund managers have coaches, Brene Brown…arguably a powerhouse when it comes to understanding how leadership works, has a coach.
If you want to be elite at what you do and find you have no one to have these conversations with, find a coach or a mentor who suits you (and preferably one that is trained/schooled) and get to work. You can thank me later.