Overwhelmed and struggling to mobilize others?
Find your authentic voice and confidently lead others through change
Does this sound like you?
You’ve been given the responsibility to drive change with high stakes for your organization, and you are excited to contribute.
You get motivating challenges, variety in your work and opportunities to stretch yourself. You have a good exposure to multiple areas of the organization, and enjoy the trust and flexibility you’re given. It’s a fantastic opportunity to accomplish great things…
And yet, on the ground, it's less glamorous. You’re giving too much while not really getting enough from others.
You get little orientation and way too few resources to get things done.
You need to rally the troops in a complex and rapidly changing environment, where silos and organizational inefficiency are the main constants, and where interests may diverge or even compete.
Therefore, despite tight deadlines, you do not get enough involvement from some of the key players, whether in your team or from your stakeholders, which severely impairs your ability to make a difference as a leader.
To make it worse, it’s a challenge to keep the focus on strategic activities because you are called to fight fires on all fronts. As a consequence, working longer hours has become a daily necessity to honor your commitments.
You are also pulled into office politics but resent it as minefield.
That’s not only damaging your interests, but those of your team and your cause. Personally, it might mean you don’t get the recognition that you deserve or seeing others get the promotion or the opportunities that you could legitimately claim.
You feel that you often have to wear a mask and show up as others expect you to. Perhaps you sometimes feel forced to tolerate things that hurt your values. As a result, you sometimes get the “imposter syndrome”, feeling out of place despite all that you and your team achieve.
Because you don’t get much feedback, you're like the maze runner, constantly wondering whether you’re heading in the right direction, and what will be the next ambush. In fact, you rather notice weak or perhaps even strong signals that things are not going the way they should, and it feels like you’re on the edge.
Sounds familiar?
When you have to lead through change, you can deliver great value but it can also be overwhelming and dismaying. You may end up questioning why you’re doing this in the first place. No matter how smart you are, at this level of the game, new skills are always required. However great you are at what you do, getting others to genuinely want to follow you is a different case. And let’s face it, when it’s so demanding, learning as you go has its limits.
Once you hit those walls, there is generally not much help around.
You might have a great manager or mentors but their availability is limited. And it feels tricky to earnestly share your doubts inside the organization anyway. You never know how it might backfire…
You may think about joining some leadership course, but you already see that it’s unlikely to give you what you need right now.
I’ve been in those shoes and surrounded by many others who were there too. I’ve learnt as much from our mistakes – if not more – as from our wins.
As you’ve read this far, you are probably among those who want to rise to the challenge.
Are you determined to set a clearer direction, find your authentic voice as a leader and have others want to follow you on what you stand for?
Yes? Kudos to you! Check out the Personal Leadership Development Matrix.
PERSONAL LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT MATRIX
On just two pages, it enables you to take a strategic look at the 7 key areas that every leader needs to consider. You can use this tool to identify where to focus your attention to lead more authentically and confidently, and to move your organization forward. To claim your free sample of the Personal Leadership Development Matrix, simply sign up below.
By signing up you consent to receiving regular emails from Career On Purpose with career-related updates, tips and ideas along with the occasional promotion for my products. You can, of course, unsubscribe at any time. Click here for my detailed privacy policy.
"All your input has been very valuable. I've made use of it, and it has helped me to successfully manage the discussions with the shareholders." - CEO, Investment and Development, Amsterdam
"I feel that I have regained my self-confidence back, and it shows in the fact that the decisions I make now come from a place of strength and being more definite answers. "
"I have a much stronger business case, and it's now clear how to enroll each key player to support me in the change I want to make."
“While my organization is great at offering leadership training and challenging opportunities to move you forward, expressing your doubts is a rather uncommon thing in our culture. And even though there is a real interest in promoting women’s leadership, the organization is not really equipped to help us chart our own course. Coaching with O’ona helped me get out of solitary thinking and get an external mirror to find my direction. As I see some patterns that served me in the past, but that currently make me bump into a wall, that’s something I am now working on to change.” – Regional Trader, Oil and Gas, The Hague
“I wanted to become more confident, more at ease and more effective. Furthermore, I saw coaching as a tool for personal and professional development. From the time I started coaching with O’ona, there was total and mutual trust. I got clarity on the negative emotions that hold me back and explored more empowering perspectives. I determined strategies to overcome my anxiety and systematically put them into action, which helped me gradually change my modus operandi. This also made me realize that the way others saw me was very different from what I anticipated, usually more lenient in reality.”
“I was like a closed flower. The coaching pushed me to open up and to reach out to key people. It made me realize that the opportunities were not that far provided I'd mobilize my network more strategically, and it helped me to get promoted.” - Head of Strategy, Media, Amsterdam
“Through coaching, I went from feeling helpless and stuck in a circle, to being more in control of the situation. I have come to better accept the past and not to focus on the obstacles, but to get creative and generate options instead. O’ona gave me the tools and techniques to do that. She was very supportive and intuitive. By seeing the different layers of what was preventing me from taking action, I looked at my issues from new angles and stepped out of my comfort zone to move ahead.”
“Thanks to O’ona’s coaching, I feel more free to be myself and do things my own way. I am more connected to my values.”