Sage Tidbit #19: Who Are You Protecting?

A tidbit is a small morsel…. of inspiration, insights, or lessons learned/tips to reflect on, and digest, over your week.

Today, I’m sharing a story about one of my clients, Mark (name changed), and how he was able to honor his late father's advice while he was meeting some leadership challenges in terms of how he developed the leaders who reported to him.

In Mark’s story, he was protecting a leader who he perceived to be weak, but in doing so, he was allowing harm to come to other employees. Sometimes we can do harm by not doing anything.

What does it mean to be weak? What does it mean to be a strong leader? How you define or describe someone's leadership affects how you respond to that person. What really is your job as a leader – to protect, to help, to call people out or into different behaviors? How does your response change based on the context in which you, or that leader is operating in? Where can you exercise more conscious leadership in how you navigate your relationships and environment?

Reflection Questions:

• Who are you protecting? How is that helpful or not helpful?

• Who do you need to hold more accountable? What are the best ways to do that?

• What gets in the way of you addressing leadership challenges in ways that you need to, to be the kind of leader your organization needs you to be?

Suze Shaner-Brodax is an executive coach and leadership & organization effectiveness consultant. She also teaches yoga and meditation – tools to keep one sane in uncertain times. She helps professionals step up to their fullest leadership, life and growth potential. At times this means getting out of their own way in getting important stuff accomplished. www.sagelead.com.