Your Development as a Leader Should Not Depend on an Employer

Some organizations still do this very well. Many more no longer do.

Budget pressure, restructuring, staff reductions, changing leadership priorities, and uncertainty have made consistent development support less available than ever before.

For much of my career, leadership development was something I was engaged in providing.

We identified promising leaders, offered training, assigned coaches, created development plans, and provided opportunities to grow through experience.

Now, even capable leaders can find themselves largely responsible for figuring out what they need to learn next, how they need to adapt, and where they can turn for useful guidance.

This reality has increasingly shaped my work and writing.

The Hidden Side of Leadership has always focused on the less visible factors that influence leadership success: situational alignment, stakeholder expectations, decision rights, organizational uncertainty, recognition, trust, and the ability to adjust when the usual rules no longer seem clear.

I have found that three groups have the most immediate need to take personal responsiblity for self-directed development

The first is leaders between employment.

Being between roles is not simply a job-search problem.

It can also be a leadership-development need and opportunity. It is a time to examine past experience, strengthen capabilities, clarify professional value, and prepare for the demands of the next role. Without an employer providing structure, that development must become self-directed.

The second group is business owners.

Small and growing businesses rarely have the leadership-development resources of larger organizations.

Owners are often need to make first time hires and to lead employees, while also running the business. Their development needs are immediate, practical, and closely tied to business results.

The third group is military veterans.

As a U.S military veteran myself, I know first hand that they most often bring substantial leadership experience, discipline, responsibility, and commitment.

Yet translating that experience into a civilian organization can require a different understanding of authority, influence, stakeholder expectations, and organizational culture.

The leadership capability is often already present. The challenge is adapting and communicating it in a new setting.

These groups are different, but they share two important and common distictions:

• They are engaged in a leadership career making or breaking transition

• They rquire continued development and cannot depend entirely on an employer.

These are commons threads I intend to explore more directly in future Leadership Insights.

Of course, continuing researching the hidden side of leadership and bringing practical findings, frameworks, questions, and application ideas to readers will remain a primary focus.

I am continuing welcoming new subscribers personally, engaging in discussions about mutual interests, and learning about their experience and sharing it appropriately with my readers

Occasionaly openings occur in my 1:1 leadership advisory services.

I invite referrals and conversations about focused one-to-one sessions designed around the needs of leaders when that opportunity presents itself.

Because of my limited availablity for private practice engagements, I can turn to my subscribers that include a variety leadership development professionals that provides a network of trusted providers who also support, independent leadership development with specialized capabilities.

Final Thought

I hope this serves as a clearer statement of direction here at the hidden side of leadership.

I am not interested building a particularly large leadership audience. It’s my aim to deliver value to a circle of leaders and trusted providers who believe leadership development should be a personal responsiblity and not stop when an employer cannot—or will not—provide it.

That is where I believe the need is growing.

It is also where I believe this work can provide the greatest value.