INsight/ Place to Be
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Photo by Getty Images on Unplash+
Manila, 18 January 2024 — “I feel less alone” after joining a community of leaders.
Story
It happened this week. From four continents around the world, members and alumni of the Grow3Leaders community came together to usher in the new year. They celebrated their progress in the past year and shared their leadership visions for the new year. Everyone responded to open-ended questions that had been carefully prepared by the members who co-hosted the event. The positive energy in the room was palpable. We heard how members and alumni had grown their leadership in the past year by investing in relationships, by sharing their experiences, and by delivering on challenges that stretched them well beyond their comfort zones.
For some, those challenges had included gaining momentum in a career shift. Others had started their own leadership development initiative after graduating from Grow3Leaders, thereby rippling out the impact by growing more leaders. The list of progress and achievements was long. In welcoming the new year, the responses went beyond the usual resolutions. Leaders shared how they were working on their leadership visions, leaving limiting beliefs behind, and taking on new challenges. Several members remarked how being part of a community of leaders had empowered them to make a big difference in their projects and confirmed their determination to continue in the new year.
In a reflection after the event, we celebrated how the community has served as a safe space to share and practice effective leadership behaviors that the leaders could then deploy in their work and life. That included how to give and receive objective and skillful feedback. One co-host remarked how important that was to her, because “most of us are not able to see ourselves as the others see us.” When members supported each other, she felt her self-confidence grow. Being in a community of practice with other leaders “was very useful for me because, through interaction with the other participants, I could see that all of us were struggling with the same problems. I felt less alone and I could learn from the others and did not feel ashamed of sharing my experiences and feelings.” Joining the community created a psychologically safe place for learning and practicing together.
Challenge
Taking our reflection further, another event host shared that being part of a leadership community of practice helps to quickly get a broader perspective on how different aspects of leadership can be experienced. “Practicing yourself is the best way to learn, but hearing about how others have engaged with an issue or dealt with someone differently is a faster way to get a broad perspective on an issue. You can also learn from hearing about what happened to others. Exchanging with others also makes you feel part of a community that is practicing similar behaviors. It is both reassuring to know that you are not on your own and an opportunity to compare what you have tried and the response to it.”
Continuing her reflection, she remarked, “It also allows you to celebrate with a group that knows what you’ve been doing and has special appreciation for it. And to be inspired and feel positive by joining in events and hearing about successes enjoyed by others.” This can be particularly helpful to leaders who have already been practicing by themselves. Among the challenges that can be overcome by joining a community, she mentioned a lack of confidence to try new behaviors and new approaches to leadership. “It’s a space for bouncing off new ideas, asking questions, requesting feedback, and seeing if anyone has already tested them and feels more confident adopting something new. It also helps to identify gaps in what (and how) we propose to do things by hearing about new perspectives and ways of practicing leadership.”
Echoing the thoughts of her fellow co-host, she flagged that “maybe the biggest problem it helps to overcome is how lonely it can be to be a leader because so many others are part of the community. Knowing and learning about leadership on your own is never the same as seeing and hearing others experiencing it too.” As a coach, I could see how these reflections were mirrored in the responses of many members and alumni who came together for the celebration. Through their individual stories of change and growth, they attested to the power of learning and practicing together in a community of like-minded leaders who are ready and committed to taking on challenges on their leadership journey.
Question
What stood out for me in this week’s celebration and the reflection afterward were three things. First, the power of practicing leadership together rather than alone. Second, joining a community of leaders can empower leaders to overcome a lack of self-confidence (often called impostor syndrome) and turn their visions into tangible progress and impact. Third, positivity and celebrating together will increase the leaders’ motivation to continue leading positive changes in their work and lives. That brings me to my question for you this week, what you will do to join a community of leaders where your practice can reach new heights?
Joining Grow3Leaders is not like signing up for a training course or program. It is becoming a member of a community of leaders who set out to rock the world with positive changes, starting with themselves and their Collabs—that’s what we call your collaboration with the three colleagues you invite to join together with you. When you join Grow3Leaders, you can choose to grow and practice your leadership in several challenges. These involve using 12 effective leadership behaviors. In the community, gaining new knowledge is only 10% of these challenges. Practicing experiential learning together hands-on in your work and life is 90% of what we do, and that includes sharing out loud in the community what we practice and learn.
When you join Grow3Leaders now, you get to work right away on your leadership vision. Why is that important? Because you want to make sure that you create new possibilities in your leadership this year that go well beyond narrowly focused and short-term goals and self-limiting beliefs. You want to allow yourself to play a bigger game and make more of a difference in your work and life. That’s why it pays to work on your leadership vision rather than quickly setting goals like the new-year resolutions that don’t last. To start, you will learn about the Three Vision Mistakes: Goals without a Vision, Vision without a Future, and creating a Vision from the Past. Avoiding these mistakes will help you create your vision the right way, and that experience will empower you to set and achieve the goals you want for your new year and the decade ahead. We hope to see you in our community soon! Join us by taking a monthly subscription now.
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