The Gap Between Reading About Leadership and Actually Leading Well
The promotion went through, and the confidence lasted about three weeks. At first, it seemed natural to manage a team. The work was old. The connections existed. The move from colleague to leader was less awkward than it could have been. And then it was complicated. One of my team members started underperforming, and every conversation we had about it seemed to make things worse, not better. Two people on the team were having a conflict, and both were expecting the leader to resolve it. There were real consequences either way,y and a decision had to be made with insufficient information. Week one’s confidence slowly turned into week six’s self-doubt. The answer most new leaders come up with at this point is the right one. They are looking for something to read. Something that would give them a framework, a perspective or at least the comfort that what they are going through is not theirs alone. The problem is the amount of what’s available. Search for leadership books and the res...