What do leadership and driving a car have in common? Here are the key similarities and learnings
First and foremost, when you drive, you need to know where you are going and follow the road signs and GPS.
Leadership is the same. You need to have a vision and direction for your team and organisation, establish roadmaps, and empower your people to follow them toward the desired destination.
Furthermore, even if you don't know the entire road ahead, having clarity about your direction can reduce anxiety and prevent “team dysfunction”.
What about speed and pace?
When you are on the road, you need to adapt to the traffic conditions, change gears and accelerate or break accordingly.
As a leader, you need to adjust to changing circumstances and shift gears: be more assertive to accelerate and more empathetic for difficult roads or tight turns.
Avoiding potholes is also essential (literally as a driver and metaphorically as a leader). They slow you down, but you learn to navigate them successfully and move forward.
Versatile leaders are like skilled drivers.
The first step toward becoming more skilled, well-rounded, and versatile is self-awareness.
As a starting point, you need to identify and understand your “default gear” or habitual leadership style.
You can’t drive a car if you don’t know the vehicle and how it works.
Similarly, you can’t lead effectively if you don’t know yourself, how you approach or respond to situations and challenges, and why.
Under stress, we often revert to our habitual leadership style, overplaying our strengths while becoming less aware and more reactive.
💎 As a key learning, prioritise self-awareness at the top of your list and intentionally work on understanding and managing your default responses to build versatility.
Insights Discovery is a framework that allows you to understand better your default and preferred ways of acting and reacting.
In my journey with leaders, I’ve integrated it into countless individual and team sessions, each leading to profound ‘a-ha’ moments.
If you’re ready to transform your leadership style from reactive to proactive and achieve greater impact with your team(s) - with personalised, context-specific support, let's talk ⤵️
It’s free and can provide immediate insights and actionable next steps, regardless of your decision to work with me as your coach.
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