There’s a great book by Marshall Goldsmith called What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There. Essentially what that means is, that you’re in a certain stature or position in the organization, and whatever you did got you to this point. However, if you want to go to the next level, you need to change. You need to grow. You need to take in some learning to get to that point.
I bring this up because of something that happens in a corporate culture. As we strive and grind as individuals to become successful, and to reach our goals and targets, we show up each and every day in a certain manner to make these results happen. We’re the top salesperson. We’re always getting the job done. We’re reaching our targets. However, that’s all individualistic. All we have to do is worry about showing up each and every day at our best to hit our targets. With that, we are praised and rewarded accordingly.
And then one day we get promoted to a leader of a division in the organization, of which now we’re not responsible for just us, we’re responsible and accountable for others. Up to now, you’ve reached success based on your own individual contribution, now your value is no longer only measured on that as the success of your team is now tied to your success. You were only responsible for you in making things happen. Now you’re responsible for a team so they can make things happen.
Understanding that a leader’s job is to build other leaders. Are these leaders now trained to help those on their team step up? Have they been trained in how to communicate with the different behaviors within their staff that they’re now managing? Are they trained to have tough conversations with their people to get the best out of them? This new leader might also become frustrated because these folks don’t move as fast as they do. They don’t achieve the results as quickly as they do. Do they know how to handle this new challenge? Remember, they only know what it takes to get them to reach their targets, but have never been trained in the art of helping others hit their targets.
How do you fix this? Well, what got you here won’t get you there. You get someone from the outside to help you become a better leader, to help you really understand the different behaviors and personality traits of the people on your staff. To help you ask better questions, to have the tough conversations to help your staff in thinking of how they can step up.
If you are now in a leadership position where you are no longer responsible for just yourself but responsible for others, and you haven’t been trained on how to handle it, now it’s time to get somebody to help you, to get you from where you are to where you need to be. Because the simple scenario is, it’s a win-win. Everybody needs to win. When your team wins, you win. When you win, your superior wins and the organization wins. And the only way everybody wins is everybody needs to grow together.
Remember, if you’re a leader, you have one job and that job is to build other leaders. And there are a lot of ingredients that go into making that happen. So, if you’re at this position in your life or business right now where you’re at the next level, what got you here won’t get you there. Most importantly remember to get from here to there, you can’t do it alone. Seek out experts to help you master these traits so you, your team and your organization can continue to win and be the best of the best.
COACH MICHAEL DILL is an Award-Winning Certified Business Coach, global speaker, and published author. He is a proud Action Coach Franchise partner as well as the President of Power & Ice Wealth Creation a strategic leadership company that works with business owners, leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs to both develop a systematized and structured organization while accelerating their mindset, efficiencies, and effectiveness to grow both personally and professionally to achieve extraordinary results. He brings more than 40 years of business and entrepreneurial experience in his leadership, team training, and mentoring practice. Businesscoachmichaeldill.com