Managers and other business leaders often see themselves on an ongoing uphill climb in their careers. But if the mountain feels insurmountable, you may need help reaching the summit. Uncovering the issues holding you back from leadership success can be a journey in itself. But with an executive coach as your guide, you can make it to the top.
Has Your Leadership Journey Stalled?
It is very common for business leaders to have a kind of mid-career crisis, feeling like their success has ground to a halt. Especially if you climbed through the ranks quickly, you may find that your leadership journey has stalled once you have been in a leadership position for a few years. If you find yourself in a rut, it can be hard to break out, and can ultimately lead to burnout.
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Common Issues Holding You Back from Successful Leadership
There are many reasons why your leadership journey may stall. Some are outside your control (such as company-wide layoffs), but many others are internal. By focusing on yourself, you can uncover the issues holding you back from leadership success. Here are some common issues that many struggle with:
Comparing Your Success with Others
Many business leaders obtain their positions by excelling in competition with others in their workplace. But once you transition from practitioner to manager, you may find yourself measuring yourself against managers more generally. You may find yourself comparing yourself to people higher on your organizational chart, or with the picture-perfect image of leadership influencers on social media. But this can make you feel inferior, inadequate, and discouraged, creating an obstacle to further business success. Instead, you should focus on yourself, and your current abilities and circumstances, rather than anyone else.
Downplaying or Disbelieving Your Own Strengths
Many leaders experience moments of “imposter syndrome” when they disbelieve their own strengths and abilities. A lack of confidence can hold you back from leadership success. It can interfere with your motivation, and make you look to others for permission to do things that have driven your success to this point. Rather than downplaying or disbelieving your own strengths, find ways to objectively measure your abilities, so you can better identify your value to your company, and to yourself.
Lacking Personalized Leadership Goals
Many people’s career advancement stagnates after the normal progression within their business or industry ends. Whether you have obtained that “senior” title or become a partner, you may find you lack personalized leadership goals to take you to the next step. Without a plan for how you will climb to the next mountain plateau, you may find it difficult to make your way to the top.
Waiting for the “Right Time”
Procrastination can be deadly for career aspirations. There are many reasons why you might wait to make big career changes:
- Instability in your current work environment
- Concerns about providing for yourself or your family
- External environmental factors like industry trends
- Pressure from higher-ups
- Urgent deadlines or client demands interfering with long-term action
All these things can make it feel like it isn’t the right time to make a change or focus on yourself. However, waiting for the “right time” to take the next big step can interfere with your success and leave you in a perpetual holding pattern. Instead, focus on setting a realistic timeline for your leadership goals that gives you something to work towards, rather than wait for.
Avoiding Fear of Failure
The fear of failure can easily hold you back from leadership success. If you find yourself sticking to what is “safe” and “comfortable,” it may be because you are worried what will happen if you try something new and fail. But remember the old saying “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Ongoing leadership success depends on being brave enough to take the next big risk. You need to build your courage and lean into the risk, trusting in your skills to catch you if you fall.
Expecting Immediate Results
If you are developing new leadership skills as part of your plan for success, it can be easy to give up when things aren’t progressing as quickly as you had hoped. Learning leadership management techniques, developing your emotional intelligence, and building the relational networks you need to advance your career takes time, effort, and persistence. If you are expecting immediate results, you will likely be disappointed. That disappointment can hold you back from success that was just over the horizon.
Trying to Do It All Yourself
Being “self-motivated” may be a selling point when trying to find a new position, but trying to do it all yourself is likely holding you back from leadership success. Ultimately, you can’t be perfectly objective about yourself or your position. You are simply too close to the issue. If you are struggling with any of these common obstacles to career success, you don’t have to do it alone. By working with colleagues, a mentor, or an executive and leadership coach, you can gain objectivity and advice to help you overcome your personal obstacles and find a new path to leadership success.
David Stanislaw is an organizational development specialist with over 30 years’ experience helping leaders and managers develop their skills through one-on-one leadership and executive coaching. Contact us to meet with David and start developing your team’s leaders today.
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