I love walking the Palo Alto Baylands – rain or shine, seeing wonders of nature and being grateful for the opportunity of experiencing that so close to home. These amazing wonders, no matter how small, continue to teach me important lessons about life, personal and professional both.
The picture of this hawk sitting at the tree top reminded me of the concept “It’s lonely at the top” and soon after my thought process drifted to this phenomenon in our workplace life.
A definition offered by google search: “It’s lonely at the top” is an idiom that means powerful and successful people often have few friends. It’s a challenge for senior leaders in the modern workplace, which is now worsened by hybrid and remote work.
As noted by Harvard Business Publishing approximately 70% of new CEOs report feelings of loneliness, a sentiment not exclusive to them but prevalent across various leadership levels. Loneliness is particularly acute among individuals newly promoted to leadership positions. With bigger responsibilities, new complex challenges, limited peer support, workplace politics and demands for life outside work, they are really in a tight spot and nobody to lean on for support.
And, over the years we have accepted the fact that the senior leaders should embrace this workplace loneliness as-is. Thinking deeply about this, I believe that it’s an overstatement and this issue can be addressed with a consciously designed plan of action. These actions require forethought, commitment, belief and optimism to do it well. Starting early really helps, but it’s never too late anyway!
Here are the concrete actions to consider:
- Follow your Role Models: Whatever stage of your career you may be at, make time to study and identify your role models. People, who have done it, done it well and inspire you. Study their journey to learn from their choices, perspectives and mistakes. Leverage the online resources, books, blogs and podcasts to learn about their careers. If you are fortunate enough to get access to your role models, get direct mentoring; I cannot emphasize the importance of this enough.
- Find or Build your Tribe: There are many others who are riding the same wave. There is a lot to share and learn from each other. At an abstract level, the underlying issues and the solutions are very portable across industries, expertise, levels and roles. If you can’t find such groups, perhaps create one. In this era, creating a community of your own interest is much easier than before.
- Create a Personal Board of Directors: This is not a new idea, however the only point I want to reiterate is – to do it early and make it a priority to keep it alive and relevant. These relationships and advice will develop and grow you.
- Stay Vulnerable and Humble – It’s easy to be pitiful to oneself and find reasons to keep the status quo instead of reaching out for help. Lack of bandwidth, higher priorities and initial inertia are the key factors which make it hard to reach out. Get out of a state of denial! Instead take the approach of vulnerability. Don’t hesitate to ask for help from people you trust.
- Build Mental Stamina: You are amidst a high demanding environment. In order to be successful, your mental health and stamina is a key ingredient. Find ways to build mental stamina – whether it’s mindfulness, outdoor activities, workouts or non work related activities. Take time to know yourself, your strengths, and weaknesses. Narrow down, which situations or expectations draw you down – and find ways to identify and handle those when those surround you. Keeping it simple, just practicing “deep breathing” is super-effective in building and improving mental strength.
- Consider Hiring a Coach: You are a proven high IQ/EQ person and an outstanding performer. You have come so far and can continue your journey successfully without any help. However, consider hiring a coach to bring outside-in view and going beyond your sphere of knowledge.
Is any of this easy ? Absolutely not! But, it’s certainly achievable..
With a passion to enable technologists in front lines, I would like to offer a deep dive into this subject. I would love to listen, learn and brainstorm to devise a contextual plan for you. I can be contacted at Nabler.
#leadership #notalone #planahead #nabling #passionproject
