The Leadership Tightrope
Leadership is a balancing act. Imagine a leader being a tightrope walker in a circus, and the success of achieving your objectives dependent on how well you balance the different priorities of your role. Like that tightrope walker, all eyes are on you and how you navigate that tightrope. Too much or too little on either side of the rope, and you can falter or fall in your leadership journey.
Effective leaders appear to gracefully and effortlessly navigate the leadership tightrope, but behind every step is a balancing act that takes concentration, hard work, and self-reflection. Tightrope walkers train for years using mechanics and physics to safely develop their routines, and leadership is no different. It takes time and practice to learn how to balance difficult leadership priorities effectively. Leadership is tough. If it were easy this article would have been titled “Leadership is a Leisurely Stroll”. If leadership were a leisurely stroll, everyone would be doing it. A leisurely stroll doesn’t inspire like the performance of the tightrope walker, which stays in the minds of the audience long after they leave the show. The same goes for leadership. What a leader does sticks in the minds of those that have been touched by it.
There is a duality to leadership, both in character and in the execution of the mission; and a duality in our role as leaders to those that we lead, and the expectations from those that lead us.
So, what are some of the things that leaders, EFFECTIVE leaders at all levels of an organization, need to balance?
1. Leaders must be confident and leverage their strengths, but also humble so they can recognize their weaknesses and blind spots.
2. Leaders need to be decisive and make decisions in a timely manner, but still cautious in order to gather facts and make informed decisions.
3. Leaders need to be compassionate and address the needs of subordinates, but also need to be prepared to make decisions in the best interest of the organization.
4. Leaders need to communicate and be transparent with their people, but they still need to be able to filter the information that comes from above.
5. Leaders need to build a relationship with their followers, but must not let that relationship cloud their objectivity.
6. Give yourself and others grace, but don’t let that grace turn into excuses.
7. Leaders must also be Followers.
The list goes on.
Like a tightrope walker, there are going to be times where you lose your leadership balance and you falter or fall. And like the tightrope walker in front of an audience, all eyes are on you when you fall. But lest that intimidate you from leadership, keep the following in mind.
1. It happens to all of us. Every single leader has lost their balance at one time or another.
2. People will not judge you for that failure to balance. Their judgement will be based on what you DO afterwards. What does the audience do when the tightrope walker gets back on that tightrope and completes their routine? That’s right, they cheer and applaud. Get back up on that tightrope.
3. We can build ourselves a safety net to help catch us, so it’s easier to get back on the leadership tightrope. That safety net is composed of our trusted circle of people. It may be trusted teammates or other leaders that we can gain advice from, bounce ideas off of, and help us relearn how to balance properly.
I’ve been in some sort of position of leadership for many years, and the balancing act doesn’t get any easier. I have found that every time I move to a different position of leadership, be it the same level of responsibility in a different organization, or a promotion, it’s like the tightrope just got a little bit higher, and I need to work on balancing just a little bit harder. And sometimes, it depends on where my head is at and what’s going on around me that may be affecting me mentally and emotionally. Just the other day, I felt myself losing my balance a little bit. I had to make a decision to redirect our staff to a different mission, one that I initially had my doubts about, and one that I knew would be unpopular with my staff. I was having a hard time achieving the balance between the needs and wants of the organization with the needs of my people. I was having a hard time being objective and being a follower. I needed help recalibrating and regaining my balance and perspective. I needed someone to talk me off the ledge. I reached out to one of my peers, someone who I trust to be objective, fair, and empathetic, and we talked through it, and they helped me get my footing back. And you know what? Balance was achieved. I understood the mission, staff was redirected, and while it was still unpopular, they understood. I didn’t fall of the leadership tightrope that day, thanks to the safety net of the people around me.
Motivational speaker, Peter Anderton, eloquently summed up the balance that is leadership with two simple rules: #1- It’s not about you. #2- It’s ONLY about you. Leadership isn’t about you, it’s about the people that you serve, both below and above, and the organization that you serve. At the same time, it’s ALL about you. It’s about your character, what you do, how you act, your belief, self-reflection, and self-awareness. It’s about how you as a leader, are going to fulfill Rule #1. So while the rules are simple, the execution is personal and complex. You are going to have to figure out how to best balance the responsibilities of leadership. All leaders struggle every day to balance the duality of leadership. Achieving this balance can be a lot of pressure for any leader, and if you’re struggling to balance these competing priorities, then I assure that that you’re doing what you’re supposed to as a leader. Leadership SHOULD feel like a balancing act. And you SHOULD be asking yourself these hard questions and constantly evaluating how well you are balancing leadership responsibilities to people below you, the people above you, and the organization of which you are all a part of.
