CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE FREE LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT
Compassion, courage, and humility. It’s been more than a year since the release of my book, What Leaders Need Now, a work in which I posit that these three leadership qualities are simultaneously essential for healthy, thriving organizational cultures—and in dangerously short supply.
Since the book’s release in March of 2023, I have paid keen attention to the ample anecdotes from client experiences that point to the accuracy of my premise, through my work as an executive coach and leading Two 3s group coaching programs based on the book. Hearing accounts and gathering feedback validate what I believe is a need for leaders to address their teams, colleagues, and themselves with compassion, what we define as empathy in action; to stand courageously for accountability for performance and adherence to values and behavioral norms, as well as to speak truth to power; and finally, to act with humility, a trade of ego for a greater goal, and a willingness to make mistakes, learn, and listen.
- Since I met him three years ago, this newly promoted senior vice president has grown a business unit within an established corporation from a start-up to over a billion in revenue. What do people say about how he did it? “He’s not arrogant.” “He really listens … truly respects everyone’s contribution to the end goal.” “He doesn’t make excuses.” He is humble.
- A president of a successful division of a large organization agonized over a decision to terminate a highly competent executive whose behavior was toxic to the rest of the team. When she made this courageous decision, the individual begged to be allowed to stay. Upon reflection, she could have succumbed to guilt. Instead, in an act of self-compassion, she resolved never to allow her own career to devolve into what she observed in this other individual. This new resolve led to new and positive behaviors in her own life. She has extraordinary courage.
- One senior leader I coached was in the challenging position of taking a job in which the heir apparent, a member of the team, was not chosen. She had the task of building trust and relationships quickly, because the need before her was to lead significant change in financial performance, under a lot of pressure. She did all of that, and when I entered to gather feedback, her team described her as highly accountable, unafraid of tough issues, intentional, and possessing a clear vision. But her superpower? They said it was compassion.
The experience of this past year has fueled my passion to go beyond anecdotes to evidence. So, we have created the simple, online “What Leaders Need Now Assessment.” I hope that you will assist me by taking just 10 minutes to complete the leadership assessment (link below) so that I can continue my research and writing about what is genuinely needed in the workplace. I would truly appreciate your view.
The completely anonymous assessment is free and will provide you with a report containing insights about your leadership behavior and your perspective on what you believe leaders need now. You will be able to compare your individual results to collective results from other leaders in our database. And you’ll be helping us gather data to make the workplace a better place to work.
Thank you.
Andrea
