Leadership is a journey. We’ve all grown up hearing that statement. But what we don’t hear is that like other journeys, like any other journeys, it will have its share of obstacles, blocks and bumps. Before we take any journey, whether it’s through air, sea, road, we prepare ourselves for those little discomforts, those little obstacles and bumps that will come along. But we don’t do the same before embarking on leadership journey. We don’t prepare ourselves enough for what’s coming on the way. And even though we experience some discomfort, some obstacles, some blocks along the way, we don’t talk enough about it.
These temporary challenges, obstacles, bumps in the leadership journey are called Leader’s Block. Yes, like Writer’s Block!
Writer’s block is a phase when the writer experiences creative slow down. It’s a phase when the author is unable to come up with his or her best writing. Similarly, leader’s block is a phase when the leader is not able to perform on top of their game. It’s a phase when they are demotivated, uninspired and disengaged. In effect, experiencing creative slow down.
My hope is that by openly talking about leader’s block, we can enable more conversations, more dialogues so that we can recognize, acknowledge, and overcome leader’s block. And not only for ourselves, but for our teams, for our future leaders and therefore making our organizations more effective and more productive.
What are you doing to enable these conversations in your organization?
