Perfect Leadership

What would this actually look like?

✔️No mistakes.

✔️No emotional reactions to stressful situations.

✔️Sufficient time allotted to coach every team member in their own unique way.

✔️Meeting all the metrics all the time.

✔️Seeing around every corner.

✔️No missed meetings.

✔️Active collaboration across all stakeholders.

✔️The right amount of communication with the right tone at the times when it's needed.

✔️Managing up, down, and across the organization effectively.

Are you exhausted just reading this list? I know I am.

And, I know that I cannot do it all of the time as much as I can try.

However, this list (or your variation of it) can serve as the intentions for each day.

Our opportunity is to show up daily focused on what matters and bring the best version of ourselves to the challenges we face.

What we should be focused on is intentional leadership.

My definition of intentional leadership requires

📕learning from the past and knowing how we get in our own way;

🤔 leading through today's challenges, being present, and addressing challenges head-on;

📆 planning for tomorrow, looking around the corners to figure out what roadblocks may pop up;

🗺️ navigating the changing circumstances in a thoughtful way vs. knee-jerk reactions.

We are imperfect people who will not be perfect leaders every day, but...

🙋🏻‍♀️ We can show up focused on being our best version each day.

🙋🏻‍♀️ We can take responsibility for poor decisions.

🙋🏻‍♀️ We can course-correct when needed.

🙋🏻‍♀️ We can be intentional in how we want to be perceived as leaders.

Teams don't need perfect leaders.

Teams need human leaders who do their best every day and try to be better tomorrow.

Teams need an intentional leader.

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How can we shift to more intentional leadership?

Many of you who read this newsletter own your own business or are leading an organization. This level of responsibility adds additional pressure to do everything right. People depend on you to lead in a way that provides them financial and emotional security. This pressure sometimes leads to ways of leading that aren't in the long-term best interests of the team.

One of my CEO clients was challenged by wanting to be liked by her team, so much so that she was excusing a team member's communication approach that significantly impacted her well-being and team dynamics. Through our work together, she began recognizing that this approach wasn't sustainable or in the organization's best interest and shifted her leadership approach.

Like many of us, the desire to be liked is strong and may be part of our definition of a perfect (or even good) leader.

She has shifted her approach to be more intentional - setting the tone of how she expects the team to work together, identifying new team members who align with similar organizational values, and focusing on how she needs to show up to get the best from her team.

There is power in shifting from wanting to be the perfect leader to being the intentional leader.

If you're ready to shift from letting perfection get in the way of your leadership, take that first step by defining the leader you want to be and setting that as your intention.