Tip Thursday With Tara - The Leadership Shift

Welcome to Amplifying Leadership and Tip Thursday with Tara, your weekly dose of practical leadership tips and strategies you can apply immediately to your team or your work. I am Tara Lehman, founder and CEO of Amplifying Leadership. Each week, I'll share insights and takeaways designed to help you build, enhance, or grow your leadership skills. It's actionable guidance you can use right away.

Visit us anytime at amplifyingleadership.ca. Hi everybody and welcome back to Tip Thursday with Tara. So I thought we would wrap up our month on delegation and empowerment and I want to talk about something that I've noticed when I do work with leaders or business owners.

I find that many leadership challenges that they have don't actually start with the delegation piece. They start with a shift that people aren't always prepared for when they move into leadership. So here's what I mean. When we are put into leadership or we become leaders because we're really good at what we had been doing, you know, you might know the job, you know how to maybe solve a problem, and you're getting the results.

So now people trust you And then all of a sudden you get that promotion and you leading a team which maybe you never been trained for What worked before for you suddenly doesn work the same way I mean, process is different. It's more you go up the corporate ladder, so to speak. I do remember one time working with a business leader who, I mean, they were very knowledgeable. They knew their stuff.

And if there was a problem, they could solve it. If a question came to them, they always had the answer. And if someone needed to get something quickly, I mean, they would be right there jumping in and making sure it happened. So the challenge wasn't the capability or the skills.

It was that everyone had learned to rely on this person. And when we rely on one person, I mean, we get exhausted and frustrated. So the leader might suddenly be overwhelmed and tired or the team might be confused or frustrated. growth for them was becoming a bit difficult because way too much flowed through the one the one person them so what really struck me during that conversation was that this business leader wasn't doing anything wrong in fact they were doing a lot of the things that help us become successful in the very first place so the problem was more that leadership required something a little different something that wasn't the normal that we were used to so at some point leadership stops being about your skill set or even proving what you can do And it starts becoming about helping others discover what they can do So showing and allowing people to try something new so that our teams can grow as well.

It's not an easy shift, especially if you're a high performer. I find that more from my experience than high performers. However, if you are someone who likes to get things done, solve problems, or even helping people, when we step back to let that happen with our teams or our team members, it can feel uncomfortable. And you know, I will agree that sometimes it might be slower at the beginning, because somebody might need to be trained.

So it's a little inefficient. And sometimes it could be the feeling that maybe you're not adding value because you're not doing so much of the work anymore, you're leading instead. But your value changes over time. So when you're that individual contributor, your value comes from your outputs.

But as a leader, your value will slowly change when you grow and you learn and you build into your roles. And that value becomes the success of your team. So now you know that you are valuable because your team is doing great, they're growing, and maybe they're really successful. that's a very different way of measuring success and it is one that I will admit many leaders do struggle with So as we finish this month conversation on delegation and empowerment I think I want to pose a question Are you still leading the way you succeeded as an employee?

Or have you made the shift to helping others succeed? So have you moved from being the employee to helping others succeed as their leader? So the leadership shift really is this shift from employee to leader is something we're not always prepared for. And in my experience, it's one of the most important shifts that we will make.

So remember, the most rewarding things about leadership isn't being the person with all the answers, but watching someone else grow because of maybe the opportunities, support, guidance, and training that we as a leader has provided to them. Until next time, thank you for joining me for Tip Thursday with Tara. That's your Tip Thursday with Tara for this week. If you are looking to clarify leadership priorities, build strong teams, or empower those around you, I'm here to help.

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