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Perhaps you’ve already done a lot of work transitioning from “boss” to “leader”: learning to delegate, empowering your team, and so on. But there’s one key element of true leaders — and that’s the ability to leverage feedback. As Ken Blanchard said, “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” If you can achieve the two-fold mastery of (a) accepting feedback and (b) using it to create change, you’ve mastered the ignite model of leadership.
Leadership is Vulnerability
While leadership is often associated with strength and dominance, it’s actually a bit of a self-effacing position. When you’re a leader, you’re not the recipient of your efforts. So, you can’t focus on how you will benefit from your great ideas. And if your good intentions don’t translate into team efforts, you’re not accepting enough feedback.
It’s a bit like your reputation. You can educate yourself, dress well, and so on, but it ultimately comes down to what people say about you. Leadership is about other people; what do they experience with you? That actually puts you in a vulnerable position: you must be open to critique. Only then will you be in a position to ignite change.
