“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.”

—Jim Rohn

I have come to learn that leadership is one of the most essential elements to organizational health and success — but not the only one. However, without strong, competent, visionary, values-based leadership as a constant; an organization and its people are easily shifted by external and internal forces off the paths of right work and right behavior.

I, too, aspire to being a leader and a good contributor in all that I do. I don’t need the title or the recognition; I just enjoy making great things happen and helping others to bring their talent to each endeavor they undertake.

Many of the remarkable leaders I have had the privilege to support in my career have faced great challenges and hardship and have steered their organizations through to safe harbor with thoughtfulness and engagement. These leaders always hold the human in mind as they ensure a future for their organization.

I love to hear leadership stories and read books about leadership. I think one can find leadership being asserted everywhere, at all levels of the organization, and even by individuals who toil without assigned positional power. Leadership is a set of observable, learnable competencies and character behaviors that anyone — doing anything — can employ.

So, I am looking for leadership, helping to develop leadership in others and practicing my own leadership all the time. You are never done developing your leadership. If you become too confident or complacent your leadership muscles sag.

There are different leadership styles to learn depending on the situation. I have discovered that as I age and have deeper experiences that my perspective and understanding of people deepens and my leadership evolves to new and better places. Most important to my cultivation of leadership is maintaining my life balance and mindfulness. When I lose my well-being in any area of my life, physical, mental, social or spiritual, I lose my ability to access my best leadership capabilities. In Dave Ulrich’s book, The Leadership Code – Five Rules to Lead By the fifth rule is “Invest in Yourself.” Leadership is to be constantly developed, nurtured and deepened.

Leadership is always on my mind, but especially so today as I have just witnessed the smooth transition of leadership in three organizations. Each of the organizations faced the tall order of filling the shoes of long-term, founding leaders who had grown each organization into robust, healthy entities with deep relationships, committed staff teams, and vested stakeholders and customers. Many organizations are facing the challenge of the retirement of long-term employees, managers, and leaders. Maintaining the continuity of organizational performance and selecting the next generation of leadership well-suited to guide the organization into its future is a very important choice point.

I have just witnessed three very thoughtful search initiatives for key leaders, knowing that the decision could affect the future of each organization. Happily, each resulted in the best possible outcome. Everyone involved in and affected by the transition was anxious — even fearful — and yet when a good process with clarity and rigor is used, guided by mission-centered individuals who both trusted the process and themselves,  good outcomes and decisions will prevail. Good process worked by good people with persistence and patience wins the day! There is a lot of work to ready the organization, communicate the process, and manage the transition that needs to be employed to ensure good results working forward.

There is also a sense of great satisfaction in knowing that the future of the organization is in good hands. I found myself becoming re-engaged and re-committed by the process as well. It was time well invested to set and keep the highest standards for leadership.

• Is your organization preparing for a significant leadership transition?

• Are you facing your own leadership transition?

• Are you looking to transition into the shoes of a long-term leader?

I will stand with, beside, and behind courageous and conscientious leadership and do whatever it takes to support it.

“Change is situational. Transition, on the other hand, is psychological. It is not those events, but rather the inner reorientation or self-redefinition that you have to go through in order to incorporate any of those changes into
your life. Without a transition, a change is just a rearrangement of the furniture. Unless transition happens,the change won’t work, because it doesn’t take.”

— William Bridges

Leslie