Leading Too Low: How To Shift To Your Highest Level of Value

by: Jessica Hartung

When a leader is promoted into a new role it constitutes a significant identity shift. Bob had spent his professional life concerned with a specific strata of organizational activities. Now, his role required a broader focus, looking at information through new lenses and seeing the same situation with a fresh perspective. He found it very hard to make that shift. Such moments may be familiar to you; sometimes our focus doesn’t match with where our leadership is needed. We hold on to what we used to do and how we used to think, when the leadership opportunity that we currently face requires a different capability.

Our shift in perspective can take a while to catch up. We need to change inside as well as in our role or we risk “leading too low.” In other words, we focus at a lower level of impact, expending our energies on what worked in the past and ultimately leaving too much of our leadership capacity untapped.

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