Rosita was a young marketing vice president of a well-known global brand who was known for her brilliant ideas and unique, creative flair. She also had a long-standing reputation for her brash, blunt, and off-putting communication style.

Rosita had marketing ideas that could revolutionize the company and increase revenue, but she often could not bring her ideas to life because of her communication style. Rosita’s blunt and directive style prevented her from enlisting mid-level global managers to execute on her concepts. The impact was that Rosita’s talent was wasted, and the company was unable to modernize its marketing strategies and fully capitalize on its product offering.

Experiencing frustration over her inability to lead her company in the direction she wanted to go, Rosita consulted an executive coach and began a reflective practice. She increased her self-awareness and began to reflect on what was getting in the way of her success. She realized that it was her leadership skills – she was confident her ideas were great, but she could not get buy-in from others to follow her. She began studying emotional intelligence, communication, and leadership styles. Over the course of a few years, Rosita became more attuned to the ways her direct and bullish communication style impacted others; she could see it was limiting her ability to get results. Gradually, Rosita began to find ways to soften her tone, ask more questions rather than directly tell others what to do, and invite others to share their ideas. Eventually, Rosita was able to implement one of her most revolutionary concepts to align marketing practices by enrolling global managers, one-by-one, to adopt her concepts and execute on her ideas.

So what does Rosita’s story mean for you? On the day that I am writing this, economic uncertainty looms ahead due to a pandemic that has nearly stopped the world. Times of crisis always bring into focus those actions we wish we had put into place before the disruption began yet had put off until another day. And, while no one is quite sure how our immediate future may unfold, one thing is certain: it’s sure to be different than what we had planned!

Whether the impacts of this crisis have long since passed, prosperity abounds and you are eyeing a possible promotion…

Or, you are facing a world for which you do not feel prepared and want to empower yourself to lead conversations that affect your career…

Or, you simply want a tangible record of your leadership that you can look back to and feel proud of how far you have come…

Putting into practice a way to pinpoint your specific leadership contributions today will equip you for what lies ahead tomorrow.

Before you start to think “but I don’t think I’ve made any leadership contributions that are specific,” or “leadership is just something that you know when you see it,” or even “it’s not possible to pinpoint leadership contributions in practical, tangible measures,” I want to assure you that nearly every leader I have worked with has expressed those very same concerns.

No doubt you have made significant changes and evolved in your leadership, too. You have likely impacted your team and organization in ways that you may not even be aware. Additionally, you probably have plans for your organization that would benefit from further development of your leadership skills. If your plans are ambitious, it is even more critical that you hone your leadership skills.

Research has shown that a model of leadership known as transformational leadership (as opposed to transactional leadership) (Bass, 1990) results in improved staff motivation (Johnson et al., 2014) and increased creativity (Dong et al., 2016) and organizational learning, innovation, and performance (García-Morales et al., 2012). Transformational leaders embody four skills: idealized influence (modeling what they want their followers to do), intellectual stimulation (challenging staff to learn and grow), inspirational motivation (sharing a vision that inspires employees), and individualized consideration (taking into account where each person is and meeting them where they are). None of these skills are realistically achievable without a reflective practice – each requires thoughtfulness, intention, awareness of self, and awareness of others. We can only become transformational leaders through reflection (Johns, 2004).

Take advantage of the time you have today to track your measures of success and then plan where you want to improve. While more sophisticated tactics do exist, it is often the hurdle of simply getting started that holds leaders back from measuring their efforts.

Start now and know that you can improve your measurement practice as you go. Here is a simple way to begin:

1. Identify your top five areas of past growth: Reflect on the top ways you have grown over the last 12 months. Narrow your list down to the top five areas of growth. The key is to let the ideas flow and not to over think it. If you find it hard to pinpoint how you have grown, think back to your most recent leadership experience and ask yourself how you approached that experience differently than you would have a year ago. Nuggets of insights about your growth are sure to emerge.
2. Rate yourself: By looking at your top five ways you have grown, rate yourself on a scale of 1–5 (1 = no change; 5 = significant change) on each of those areas of growth. The only person who will see your ratings is you. Your ratings are both subjective and relative, and in this case, that is perfectly fine. You are aiming to get a sense for yourself where you believe you have grown the most and where you still have opportunity to develop.
3. Ask others for ratings: Next, ask those you work with (manager, peers, or direct reports) to rate you on those areas of growth. Ask for examples of growth as well as opportunities for continued growth when you capture ratings to give your rater the opportunity to comfortably share why they assigned their ratings.
4. Consider the financial impacts: Once you have clarity about the practical tangible ways you have grown, consider how your growth has impacted your team and the organization. What you have been able to accomplish as a result of your growth? In what ways does that accomplishment lead to a financial gain or savings for your organization? Considering how your transformation has impacted your contributions to the organization in financial metrics is an important step of this process and will boost your confidence and sense of pride!
5. Document: Finally, it is easy to forget our successes. We often focus on the next challenge ahead and lose track of our achievements, growth, and successes as we dig into our current problem or goal. Document your leadership impacts, now. One day, you will look back to this historical record and be glad you had it.

You can repeat this process by identifying your goals, reflecting on how you can improve your leadership to achieve those goals, and identifying areas for future growth.

Rosita’s transformation was slow, and at first, she was unaware of the new impact she was having. Only by taking time to slow down and reflect on her personal leadership transformation was Rosita able to see the impact. Rosita thought carefully about the specific ways in which she had changed, identifying what she believed were her top five areas of growth, and then rated herself on those changes. Without sharing her personal ratings, she got input from her manager on her manager’s ratings of those changes. With comparative feedback from herself and her manager, Rosita’s eyes were opened as she was able to clearly see the specific ways in which she had grown.

More importantly, Rosita’s leadership transformation led to an organizational transformation. The organization was able to modernize its marketing strategy because 100% of the global mid-level managers adopted her concepts. Not only did the organization achieve new levels of revenue, but the company saved $1.3 million dollars in marketing costs due to the effectiveness of Rosita’s plan!

When Rosita reflected on the ways her personal leadership transformation led to the financial gains and positive impact those gains had on the organization, she felt surprised about the impact and proud of the efforts she had made to grow.

All leaders want to grow and be known as a leader who makes a positive impact. We all want to make a difference in the world. That is why we are here. By tracking your progress and documenting your growth and impact today, you are prepared for whatever the future holds and assured you will measure up.

I hope you feel proud of how far you have already come, and I hope your reflective practice prepares you to rise to meet the challenges ahead.

References

1. Bass, B. M (1990). From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the vision. Organizational Dynamics, 18(3), 19–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(90)90061-S
2. Dong, Y., Bartol, K. M, Zhang, Z. X, & Li, C. (2016). Enhancing employee creativity via individual skill development and team knowledge sharing: Influences of dual-focused transformational leadership. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(3), 439–458. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2134
3. García-Morales, V. J, Jiménez-Barrionuevo, M. M, & Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez, L. (2012). Transformational leadership influence on organizational performance through organizational learning and innovation. Journal of Business Research, 65(7), 1040–1050. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.03.005
4. Johns, C. (2004). Becoming a transformational leader through reflection. Reflections on Nursing Leadership, 30(2), 24–26.
5. Johnson, W. B, Skinner, C. J, & Kaslow, N. J (2014). Relational mentoring in clinical supervision: The transformational supervisor. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 70(11), 1073–1081. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22128