INsight/ Love Making Decisions

Photo by nicholas NG on UNSPLASH.

Manila, 8 June 2023 — How a love for decisions will make your leadership flow.

Story

It happened this week. Lisa O’Neill, one of my leadership mentors, shared in a story how she loves making decisions, and how important that is for leaders. Listening to her, a metaphor came up for me to see ourselves as part of the river of life, as symbolized in the photo. Every time we take a decision, even a small one, we gently let the river of life continue its flow, instead of blocking the flow by procrastinating.

How to make decisions? Whereas the public discourse dives deeply into how to be a successful manager, for us as leaders, I think that taking a more personal approach is appropriate. O’Neill explains that loving to make decisions touches every part of her daily leadership practice. According to her, it’s about mentally shifting gears to take charge of the situation, recognizing that every moment offers an opportunity to decide something valuable. That also reminded me of Seth Godin, an author, who wrote that for leaders, it’s always our turn [to make a choice, a decision]. 

Remarkably, in English, the ‘cide’ in decide also shows up in words for killing such as femicide, fratricide, and genocide. These convey a radical, decisive action with finality as if to kill off choice. Personally, I much prefer the metaphor of choosing to let the river of life flow rather than standing in its way to block the water. Either way, however, deciding is about a deliberate choice of forward action. When we procrastinate, we block the flow and we don’t move forward. How can we avoid that and let the river of life flow through the decisions we can make every day and week?

Challenge

Years ago, one of my former bosses told me a story over a glass of beer. He shared about a time at work when he had chosen to give me space to act, rather than stand in my way. That was a deliberate decision on his part. I didn’t know it at the time. His story gave me an important insight into leadership that I treasure until this day. It’s that intervening is often a management decision, aiming to optimize an outcome. Giving space, however, lets your colleagues grow while having their back. I warmly appreciate the leadership decision my boss took, and his reason for doing it. 

In the meantime, my career has shifted to coaching for leadership development, and my passion is to grow more leaders in a world that goodly needs more leaders. To make that happen, we need to create safe spaces to practice their leadership behaviors and grow. In the coaching work, we create that space, with a choice of working in a private one-to-one coaching relationship, or in a community of practice.

The community is called Grow3Leaders. It’s a safe space to practice in a challenge. Currently, that is the LEADyear Challenge to become a Trusted Leader. There is a twist. Through experience, we discovered that practicing leadership can be fast and fun when you do it together with others. That’s why the Challenge is open to leaders who invite three colleagues to join and form a Collab, so that they can learn together ‘Out Loud’ with each other and the other leaders in the community.

Question

Commitment is also important. We discovered that learning to lead is a game for players rather than spectators. When you join the Grow3Leaders community with your Collab, you commit to spending 15 min every weekday to learn and share in our community. Research shows that leaders who ‘do their stuff’ grow to realize their goals and vision. Those who don’t… well, you get the point. Growing requires your love to make decisions and practice every day and week. Then the river of life can flow through you to make a difference in your life and work.

This month of June, we welcome your expressions of interest to join us in our Grow3Leaders quarterly intake. ‘Play’ kicks off on the first of July. To be ready, prepare now. My question this week comes in three parts: Will you decide to stop standing in your own way to grow as a leader in your life and work? Will you decide to stop giving in to your fears of what other people will say when you step outside of your small self and start leading with a big vision? Will you decide to stop procrastinating and give yourself space to enjoy the river of life flowing through you, so that you can grow more leaders around you as well as your own leadership?

If you respond Yes to any one of these three questions, then why not decide to take action on it? You can either come and join us in the Grow3Leaders community—with your Collab of three colleagues—or you can set up a free strategy call to start your private one-to-one Leader in Transition coaching program. Either way, you can give yourself the space you need to grow as a leader, with the commitment it needs to succeed.