How Your Perspective on Leadership Is Causing You Stress and Extra Work as a Humanitarian and International Development Leader
How might your perspective of leadership be causing you unnecessary stress?
Learn a common belief humanitarian and development leaders have that creates more work than necessary and an alternative way of thinking in today’s quick quote episode inspired by this quote:
"Leadership is no longer about having the right answers but is more about engaging others to find the right solutions." - James D Showkeir
Listen now to learn a new way of thinking that will make you more productive and less stressful!
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This podcast empowers international development and humanitarian leaders to achieve high performance teams, fostering diversity, inclusion, and wellbeing, overcoming burnout and overwhelm, while maximizing impact and productivity.
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
How Your Perspective on Leadership Is Causing You Stress and Extra Work and an Alternative Way to Greater Productivity as a Humanitarian and International Development Leader
How might your perspective of leadership be causing you unnecessary stress? Find out on today's episode.
Welcome to The Modern Humanitarian and Development Leader podcast, the podcast helping humanitarian and development supervisors make a greater impact by taking control of your time, leading more inclusively and empowering your team all the while avoiding stress, burnout, and overwhelm. I'm your host, leadership coach and former aid worker, Torrey Peace.
Are you ready? Let's get started.
Hello, my aspiring modern humanitarian and development leaders. So today's quick quote is by James D Showkeir and it is, "leadership is no longer about having the right answers, but is more about engaging others to find the right solutions." So as we spoke about on Monday, I've observed that many leaders make assumptions about what their team wants or needs without even having conversations with them. They think that they are thinking from facts. Like
my team needs me to tell them what to do. Or. I am the leader and therefore I need to have all the answers. They say these things as if they are facts. But really they are assumptions. And until you test what your team needs or wants, or even have those conversations with them, you will be left to the less than scientific methodology of guessing what works and what doesn't. And as we all know, That doesn't lead to much of anywhere. So I mentioned this as well, but one of these assumptions that many leaders make is that the role of the leader is having all the answers. And this thought or this assumption, is the source of a lot of stress because no one has all the answers.
It is impossible. And so of course it's a big burden to put on yourself to think that you need to know at all. Think of all the great leaders and your role models throughout time. Not one of them knew all the answers. I promise you. Instead, like in this week's quote, they prioritized surrounding themselves with the right people who could give them the answers.
This is the value of having a team. The diversity of thinking. And also many times our team knows better than we do what solutions will work best in certain situations. For example, your team may understand what's going on at the community level better, they might understand the culture better or the language better.
They might understand that particular part of the project better, or the implementing partner better than you do. Or based on their own background, they may understand a part of the culture where your project is operating better than you. And this is the reason we have a team. Not to tell them what to do, but to ask them what they think they should do. Meaning, we do not need to have all the answers. So your value as a leader and especially as a modern humanitarian and development leader is the quality of the questions that you ask. Because the better questions that you ask, the more you will help your team come up with better solutions. So as James D Showkier says, "we need to find the people who can come up with solutions."
This added pressure of needing to know it all is very, very stressful. I see it all the time. And I see it with my students when they come and take my course and they realize. Oh, wow, I don't need to have all the answers
Shure MV7: and actually it's a more inclusive way of leading to ask others around me, what their answers are instead. And I can just see the stress melt away from their faces. So how can you provide less answers and ask better questions instead?
On next week's episode, we're going to be discussing three ways that you can stop wasting your time and become more productive. Sound good? Until then keep evolving. Bye for now.
Are you the type of leader that tells others what to do? Or do you let them figure it out for themselves? Understanding your leadership style is the first step to deciding what's working for you and what's not. To find out your leadership style, take my free quiz "what is your leadership style?" You'll immediately find out your default style, how it may be impacting your team, and a few practical ways to become an even better leader.
Just click on the link in the show notes, www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz,. Fill out your quiz and click submit. So what are you waiting for? Go to www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz, and discover your leadership style now. Your team will thank you for it.