Healthcare leaders – do you feel like you’ve hit a glass ceiling in your career? I’m not talking about the gender glass ceiling. I’m talking about when you’ve been in the same job for a few years. Maybe you’ve had a few exciting projects here and there and maybe you’ve even been “promoted” a couple of times, but they’re promotions in title only. You’re still doing the same basic work, but you just seem to get asked to do more of it and you can’t seem to break through to the next level. To others, you may even appear to be pretty successful, but to you it just feels like each opportunity is more of the same-old, same-old. You want to contribute in a more meaningful way, learn something new, and make a bigger impact, but you can’t seem to find opportunities that stretch, challenge, or energize you. Or, maybe you feel like you’re doing some great work, but can’t seem to get past a certain role or level in your career.
I can relate. I had a pretty great career as a healthcare leader and worked for a fantastic organization. I had bosses who cared about me professionally and as a person. I was promoted a few times and took on some really interesting roles and projects. I was a department head, involved in important committees, and was responsible for some institution-wide centers and projects. My sense of achievement and my ability to get stuff done felt good. It gave me a lot of satisfaction and fulfillment, and I felt like I was doing work that was important and making a difference for other people.
But, no matter how much responsibility and authority I got, I couldn’t rise above a certain level. I wanted to be at the senior-most tables, in the “C-suite” – charting the course for the organization. I even moved to another company for a strategically oriented VP role that I thought would be a pathway to the C-suite. I quickly found myself crazy busy, putting out fires, and juggling the 100 balls thrown my way. Not only was I not making headway towards elevating my leadership, I actually ended up with the clinical symptoms of burnout – anxiety, emotional exhaustion, and cognitive impairment.
I was incredibly fortunate that my company provided coaches for its leaders. In working with my coach, I realized I wasn’t being strategic about my career, or about stretching myself as a leader. I wasn’t in the driver’s seat of my own development; instead, I relied on my bosses to guide me and define my leadership. I paid too much attention to getting stuff done. I took on everything that I was asked to do, thinking that would help me advance. But I didn’t proactively evaluate what I needed to do, or who I needed to be, to take my leadership to the next level. I didn’t think consciously about the impact I wanted to have beyond crossing off my to-do list.
Working with my coach helped me gain clarity about who I wanted to be as a leader, how I wanted to show up, and what it took for me to be at my best. I began to focus on the difference I wanted my leadership to make in the world. And I learned what it takes to get yourself to that next level – to truly be a leader, not just a manager, and to show up as a leader others will follow.
I learned that you have to master your leadership presence, change your mindset, and engage in deliberate behaviors. It’s not enough to be smart, to gain experiences, or to change what you do; you have to change how you be.
For me, these lessons were profound. I realized that rather than charting strategy for organizations, I wanted to work with individual leaders to help them chart strategy for their leadership. So, I went back to school and became an executive and leadership coach. Now I have the privilege to do what I love every day – to help people be the best version of themselves.
It’s important to note that you don’t have to make the kind of major shift in your career that I made. You only have to take five steps to create the best version of yourself and show up in a way that will make you an inspiring and influential leader – one who others naturally want to follow. These five steps allow you to claim your leadership passion and purpose, and master your actions, so you can do more of what you love, position yourself for bigger roles, and still be able to have a life outside of work.
The first thing is to envision what you really want from your professional life and your leadership. What does that really look like? How would it feel to have it? Next, get clear on what’s really important. What do you want more of in your life? Then, focus on how you get there. You don’t need to have all the answers, but do need to focus on how you can cultivate your emotional intelligence. After that, find your advisors. Who can give you feedback on your leadership and help you grow? Finally – or maybe this is foremost – you need to make time in your life to get to your leadership destination.
Over the next few weeks I’ll dive into each of these five steps in detail and also offer some initial ideas on how you can practice being the leader others will follow. I encourage you to bookmark this blog so you can follow along with the program. And if you want to dig deeper and get personal insights on what you can do to become the leader you want to be, contact me.
I want to know what you think about this post – please comment below!
