Leadership without responsibility for impact is unsustainable

Impact as a Leader

"Hey Suesie, I feel like you are holding back your opinions. You're always a straight shooter and I have this sense that you are massaging your words and not being as direct as you want to be with me”. That was the start of the most important conversation to date with Suesie, my Project Manager for Fascinnovation.

I was giving her some feedback on our working relationship since she started with the company in January. What I assumed was going to be a straightforward conversation to help Suesie feel more open and a part of the team turned into a profound lesson on how I am as a boss.

Sharing my feedback with Suesie, opened a larger conversation about my impact as a leader. I was asking her to take more risks in the company while at the same time I was not including her in many aspects of the operations. When the conversation opened up, I discovered that she felt excluded on certain projects, not being in the loop on all programs, she felt isolated. She was not integrated with the entire company and unsure where she could make a difference.

This was a game-changer for us. I was quickly able to include her into multiple projects and give her a better sense of the varying services we offer. At the same time, it helped share the load of the projects and allowed me to focus on business development aspects.

As leaders, we need to take responsibility for our impact and remember that feedback is communicated verbally and through our actions. That’s not always easy as we are focused on getting things done. When someone has a negative or defensive reaction to feedback, leaders often fault the person for taking the information too personally. When we do this, we are not being truly open to the conversation the feedback will open up.

The first step is to slow down long enough to observe the impact we are having. When our actions or words create situations that negatively impact our relationships, we need to clean it up. That means having real conversations with our people.