BOARD REPORTMonica Gillison
Earlier in my career, I probably would have defined a strong leader as someone who always knew what to do. That made sense at the time and it fit the image of leaders we saw in media and the movies.
It fit in real life too. The leaders I noticed were confident. They made decisions. They had answers. They could walk into a room, establish direction and get people moving.
Experience has changed my definition.
Today, I’m much more likely to notice the leader who asks the right question, creates space for someone else to contribute or recognizes when the best thing to do is listen. Leadership, I’ve learned, isn’t always about being the person with the answer. Sometimes it’s about helping others find what — or who — they need.
That doesn’t mean the things we value early in our careers are wrong. Expertise matters. Confidence matters. The ability to make decisions and deliver results matters. We spend years developing those capabilities, and we should.
But as our responsibilities grow, so does our understanding of what leadership requires.
One of the biggest shifts for me has been recognizing the difference between doing the work and enabling the work. Early in a career, success is often measured by what we personally accomplish. Did I deliver the project? Solve the problem? Meet the deadline? Create something that made a difference?
Leadership changes the questions:
Did I give someone else the opportunity to succeed?
Did I provide enough direction without prescribing every step?
Did I listen closely enough to recognize an idea better than my own?
Did I help create an environment where people felt comfortable speaking up?
Those questions are especially relevant for those of us in learning and development. We build careers around helping other people become more capable. Yet as leaders, it can be tempting to demonstrate our own value by being the expert in the room.
I once had someone ask me why we were doing a task a certain way, and when I thought about it, the answer was simply because that’s how I was taught. My first reaction was to move on, but instead, I asked how they would do it. After listening, I realized their suggestion was better — an idea I might have missed if I hadn’t taken the time to ask.
Sometimes our greater value comes from drawing expertise out of everyone else.
Experience also teaches us that leadership and authority aren’t the same thing. Some of the most influential people I’ve worked with weren’t the most senior people in the room. They earned trust. They understood the business. They asked thoughtful questions. They helped people see possibilities and brought others along with them.
That’s an important reminder for anyone who wonders whether they are “senior enough” to lead. Leadership opportunities arrive long before leadership titles do.
And maybe that’s the biggest way my definition has changed. I once thought leadership was something you eventually achieved. Now I see it as something you continually practice.
There will always be another situation that tests us, another person who teaches us something and another moment when the approach that worked before no longer does.
If you define leadership differently today than you did five or 10 years ago, that’s probably a good thing. We’re supposed to grow and evolve as people and professionals. Even the leaders we once looked up to — and the qualities we admire in them — may look different to us as our own experiences and needs change.
That flexibility. That growth. That awareness.
They’re signs that you’re still learning how to lead.
Monica Gillison is a life sciences training executive. Connect through mjgillison@gmail.com or linkedin.com/in/monica-gillison-mba-1b281279.