Why I Need You to Practice Leadership Like You Mean It.

#RadicalAccountability Post for Week 3: Leadership Isn’t a Job Title. It’s a Daily Commitment.

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Truth Bomb: Leadership is not an identity you wear.

Leadership is leading yourself, others and organisations to reach their full potential.

In my Leadership Compass world, the leadership skill sets are BQ, EQ & SQ.

Truth Bomb: The most in-demand people in the 21st-century organisation will be those who have and are known as having a combination of BQ + EQ + SQ skills.

Leadership is a set of skills you learn and, with disciplined effort, attain mastery.

What does disciplined effort look like? It means committing to learning, unlearning, practising, getting feedback, and practising again.

“Once you’ve identified a leadership skill you want to improve, you need intention, feedback, and repetition.” - No Ceiling, No Walls (Susan Colantuono, the original BQ badass)

Well hello! Yep, it’s your weekly #RadicalAccountability post.

(If you are new around here, go back a few posts and you’ll find Week 1 and Week 2 to catch up on.)

About Me

I’m the unapologetically fierce, quite sweary, globally sought-after architect of workplace gender equality, diversity, equity and inclusion. I’ve earned my stripes in the corporate trenches and the boardroom, and I’ve made it my mission to dismantle the bullshit that holds women back.

I work with organisations ready to stop ticking boxes and start doing gender equity right. I also work directly with ambitious women through my Lead to Soar Network, and book The Leadership Compass, which is the ultimate guide for women leaders to reach their full potential.

I don’t do fluff. I do strategy. I do truth bombs.

5 Ways to Actually “Practice” Leadership

Start here:

1. Make the commitment to learn and practice.

2. Pick one skill that aligns with the outcomes your organisation needs from you right now. (Not just what you like doing.)

3. Set your intention. Why are you focusing on this? What will be different when you improve?

4. Create your practice loop.

   • Do the thing.

   • Ask for feedback.

   • Reflect.

   • Repeat.

5. Track your growth. Your calendar, your notebook, your brain, whatever works. What gets measured gets managed. What gets managed, improves!

What It Really Looks Like to Practice Leadership

The women I work with, whether through my corporate programs or the Lead to Soar Network aren’t passengers. They’re purpose-driven and unapologetically ambitious.

One woman stands out. She wanted to be recognised as a strategic leader, not just the go-to fixer or doer.

So she asked me for my advice. I told her what I have already told you, so she decided to invest in her development. She invested:

1. Time to audit her skills and identify her strengths and her gaps.

2. Time every week for my Hour of Power group coaching session.

3. Time to engage in the Lead to Soar Network content aligned to her skill gap analysis.

4. Time to put her skills development into practice.

5. Time to get feedback from the strategic mentors, sponsors and stakeholders in her organisation that hold her career in their hands.

6. Time to be intentional about her leadership career.

See the pattern here? Not one bit of her “investment” had a dollar sign.

Every bit of her “investment” was built on a foundation of commitment and intentionality.

The Investment Returned Dividends.

She built confidence because she built competence.

She gained credibility by getting herself noticed for the right reasons and landing more strategic work that aligned with her goals.

That’s what the practice of leadership looks like.

Just radical accountability, applied.

Managers: 5 Questions for You

You don’t get to check out of this challenge because you’ve already got “leader” in your job title.

Here’s your “hold up the leadership mirror check”- Are you part of the problem, or leading like you mean it??

1. Are you role modelling the mindset of investing in self-development daily?

2. Are you openly, vulnerably and courageously communicating about your continuing professional skills needs?

3. Are you creating space for your team to practice, get it wrong, reflect, and try again?

4. Are you coaching team members, particularly women, about investing time in CPD?

5. Are you providing women the developmental opportunities they need?

Your #RadicalAccountability Weekly Challenge:

• Pick one skill you want to improve.

• Practice it this week, on purpose, with intention.

• Ask for feedback. Track your progress.

• Bring what you learn to your next 1:1, Hour of Power, or team meeting.

Truth Bomb: The women I'm backing are not passengers. They’re pilots.

You already know this: women aren’t broken. The systems are. But if we wait for those systems to fix themselves, we’ll still be sitting in the same rooms, hearing the same excuses, in ten years’ time.

So, practice like you mean it!

Let me know how you go?

Want more support to go further, faster? Join me inside the Lead to Soar Network. This is where ambitious women come to grow on purpose and stop waiting for permission.

If you’re a paid subscriber, keep scrolling to your 3-month guest pass to the Lead to Soar Network (which includes access to weekly coaching with me), plus a Career Skills SWOT Analysis.