Senior leaders, can you handle it?
It’s a loaded question, but it is asked more often than you think.
Here’s a typical scenario.
A senior leader gets their promotion, possibly after a few attempts.
The first year is a rough ride, with big challenges and long hours. But they survive.
They start year two feeling like they have a strong foundation to push on.
Yet to their surprise it is no easier. If anything it is worse.
And then the question starts to be asked amongst their colleagues - can they handle it?
It is also the question which leaves people stuck at the level below, because they think senior leadership is ‘not really for them’.
There are stacks of middle leaders in every organisation who would make fantastic senior leaders if they could find a little confidence. They apply once or not at all.
But for those in post - by the time they realise others are asking ‘the question’ they have been asking it themselves for some time.
So how best to get out of this rut?
Here’s four aspects of the how and why.
1. Middle and senior leadership are opposites
Senior leadership is not an extension of middle leadership.
While the two may have much in common that isn’t enough to cling on to.
Moving from being a manager to a ‘manager of managers’ is a significant change. You do not have, and should not need, the same level of relationship with their teams as you did with yours.
You need to engage with the big picture, of which you may have only seen (or noticed) a small segment in your previous role.
Thinking of the two as opposites forces you into a corner.
Ask these three questions as a starting point
What do you need to relearn? Or unlearn?
Which strengths no longer matter so much?
What do you need to engage with which you have never previously considered?
Go through the questions several times over, aiming for as long a list as possible for each one.
Do not worry about the how just yet - your senior colleagues and CEO can help with that.
Your own answers to that will be better than you imagine. It is impossible to come up with a good answer to a question you haven’t asked.
2. Pick your priorities
One, at a stretch two, is all you need.
I can see the eyes of my coaching clients widen when I say it.
The preferred answer is generally an equivalent of ‘everything, all of the time’, often followed by ‘how can it be otherwise?’
There has to be a constructive answer to that last question. If there isn’t then the rabbit in headlights look you may have adopted is going to be on show a lot more than you think it is.
If you prioritise everything, you prioritise nothing.
Select the one, or two, big things where you have to deliver significant improvements in the next six months. Ideally, you will still get it down to one and when that is up and running with some momentum your attention might shift.
They need to be aspects of your work that only a senior leader could do, and where your overall performance will be judged.
Your aim is to spend 50% of your time on that one thing.
FIFTY?!? How?
When you focus on that one thing, it is amazing how you start to use your time differently.
You will also notice the extent to which you have ignored it or kept finding excuses not to engage with it.
Senior leadership is about getting the big stuff done - without that you are just ‘middle leader plus’.
If the decision makers thought that was what they were getting you would not have been given the job.
3. You are not the helpdesk
The ‘customer service’ senior leader may be popular with lots of colleagues, but it does not make the boat go any faster.
Prospective senior leaders are often asked to consider the kind of senior leader they really want to be. ‘Helpful, open door, always got time for others’ and so on are typical answers.
And there is much to be said for some of that. But not all the time.
The more questions you answer, the more you are the first to respond to an email, the more you say yes to ‘got a minute?’, the more you will be asked. Those dopamine hits from putting a smile on the faces of others only go so far.
Then you find yourself doing other people’s jobs for them. They will absolutely love you for this, and it is a short route to your personal misery.
In your formative years as a senior leader you need to be ruthless with your time if you are going to achieve anything, and limit any ‘help desk’ tendencies.
Go back to that 50%. Which of the queries would you have left alone, or redirected, in your last full working day if you were going to get near it?
4. Survival mode is no place to be
Success at senior level is not about clinging on.
Some of the time it can feel like that when the out of nowhere concertina hits you. But that needs to be the exception and not the rule.
You have to be determined to control the job, and not let it control you.
Easier said than done of course, but also impossible unless you eat, sleep and exercise. They are not luxuries, and only you can decide whether to prioritise them.
There might be cultural expectations about working hours, lunch breaks and weekend emails but they are not more important than your performance. If you have to choose between the two, and you may well need to, go for the latter.
Senior leadership jobs require a lot of mental energy for strategic big picture thinking. Why limit yourself?
The regular day of the week when you depart ‘on time’, leaving the laptop at work, planning a midweek social life all make a difference to your well-being.
There will be enough time in your senior leadership work when you end up in survival mode through no fault of your own - your senior colleagues, manager and direct reports all need you to arrive at work in your best mental state.
They need you to be able to handle it.
Remember that
This is all about the root causes. Tinkering at the edges will lead to a temporary shift, if that.
The determination you showed to get to this point will be very useful now. In the past that may have primarily been on show to others. Now it needs to be internal because transformation starts from within.
How can I help you?
1. One to one coaching programmes for senior leaders who are swamped by their jobs so they can thrive in life. Click here to discover where you are on your journey from Frantic to Fulfilled? Just 5 minutes of your time and you will receive a full personalised report with guidance on your next steps.
2. Team coaching programmes - working IN a team is not the same as working AS a team and yet they are often treated as if they are the same. I help teams move from the former to the latter, and generate huge shifts in productivity and outcomes.
3. Talks, workshops and seminars - including topics relevant to the two areas above plus explaining Gen Z to Gen X and dealing with the intergenerational workplace. Speaker showreel here.
4. My book The Snowflake Myth will be published in 2025 - to receive a free chapter (when available 😬) please click here.
