The Burden of Leadership

BOTTOM LINE: Leadership carries a heavy weight. The best leaders embrace the burden and learn not only to survive, but to thrive in a way that helps the organization and everyone they lead to flourish as well.

Many people who aspire to leadership and worse still, many who actually ascend to it, do not fully realize the incredible burden that leadership represents. And make no mistake, leadership is definitely a burden.

Being a leader means taking on greater responsibility for oneself as well as accountability for the actions and inactions of others. Leadership requires more than simply showing up, doing a series of tasks, and going home. Instead, leaders must manage processes, lead people, develop policies, strategize for the future, and solve the problems that others can’t, won’t, and don’t have to.

Leadership requires the development of new skills and the breakdown of old habits. It is existing in a constant learning curve where each new day brings situations and challenges that must be carefully considered, navigated, and conquered. Shifting priorities mean finding balance that is more necessary, but more difficult than before.

Leadership demands great consideration of more information, perspectives, and consequences for every decision. It necessitates more planning, greater strategy, and increased compromise. Additionally, successful leadership requires more patience, communication, collaboration, and more "making nice" with others, even when it’s the last thing a leader wants to do.

That’s not all, though. Because while the things listed above things increase, other things must decrease significantly. The level of transparency that leaders reflect in their communication must increase while the amount of raw, unfiltered honesty must actually be curbed. Conflict resolution becomes more frequent while the ability to avoid conflict decreases. Here's a fun one... the amount of time in meetings often skyrockets while the actual time spent being productive seems to nosedive. Here’s a hard one for many… Relationship-building must increase since leaders must build better, more nuanced, and more productive relationships with more people. However, the depth and openness of some relationships within the workplace will actually have to be curbed as leading close friends can create conflict, favoritism (or the appearance of favoritism), and other difficulties.

If all that seems like a lot, that’s because it is. All of that and more is the burden of leadership. Good leaders recognize this burden. Great leaders bear it.  Amazing leaders carry the burden of leadership with reverence and pride. These leaders are best of us, the ones who become iconic and leave indelible legacies of positive change. They are the leaders who inspire. They create cultures where the business and the people thrive. These leaders leave a legacy that molds a better future by creating new generations of leaders who also acknowledge, understand, respect, and revere the incredible burden of leadership.