The Importance of Self - Assessment
You may know the feeling. Despite endless encouragement, diligent coaching, and every teaching method you can think of, some people still don’t get it. They keep going around the same mountain, failing to grasp the ideas and actions that you now see as simplistic.
Sometimes it seems agonisingly slow.
‘Why can’t they get this?’
‘This is the third time I’ve had to remind them of this!’
‘I’ve already told them that way won’t work.’
Rather than looking at others, however, we should be challenged to look more at ourselves and our own development. Self — analysis holds a valuable place in the toolbox of any leader (remember the old leadership maxim — ‘for every finger you point at someone, there are four pointing back at you’).
Too many successful leaders are no longer aware of their own blind spots.
Nothing inhibits change like some success, and growth can sometimes be inhibited rather than incubated by status.
Tidal leadership is the principle that governs your team's growth and development. If you’ve heard the term ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’, you’re probably already familiar with it. You dictate the tide of your team. In nature, a particular tide can see water levels rise over 5 storeys tall on a given day. As tides affect the environment around them — so does the way we pursue our own development.
The speed of the leader is the speed of the team.
Healthy creative leadership dictates that we are personally responsible for our own growth. If our own growth stalls, however, how do we expect our people to continue in an area we have stagnated? Leaders are the standard bearer and the tide marker for the teams — and it is very unlikely they’ll grow if you don’t.
Tidal leadership is an encouragement to make sure you are continuing to create and mature at the same rate you expect others to.
It’s disingenuous to expect others to be upskilling and growing in capacity while giving yourself a free pass in those same areas. Even King Canute recognised that the tide was a principle no man could defy.
An inability to acknowledge and act on tidal leadership will be damaging to any creative leader — and eventually to those they lead as well. Expecting a team to take ground that a leader is not already plowing is nonsensical. The people we lead can only grow themselves as fast as I am growing myself. They can’t outpace me.
If your people’s growth is outpacing your own — you may be the very obstacle that’s slowing them down.
The speed of the leader is the speed of the team, and tidal leadership is already at play in your team and organisation.
In orders to effectively self — assess, here are some questions to ask:
- What was my last paradigm shifting breakthrough?
- When was the last time I did something for the first time?
- What new territory am I consciously taking steps into?
- What’s one potential blindspot I’ve failed to self — diagnose?
So, the challenge is simple… are we helping our people to grow by growing ourselves? Or are we the ones holding them back through our own lack of progress?
As you push yourself, you will lift the tide for your entire team.
Your efforts will create a new ceiling for those alongside you. An understanding of tidal leadership could well be a step towards the breakthrough you’ve been seeking.
G
