Achieving a leadership role is exciting. You’ve spent years building a career, and you have reached a level where your knowledge and expertise are recognized. But it can also be intimidating. You’re facing new challenges and new expectations. Whether you realize it or not, your thoughts and feelings shape your leadership style. You may need to take a moment and ask yourself, are you holding yourself back?
Some self-reflection when stepping into a leadership role can help you avoid some of the missteps others make when you inevitably struggle. Instead of blaming external factors, look inside to see if your beliefs are limiting you. Or, as Muriel M. Wilkins calls this in a recent Harvard Business Review article, your hidden blockers.
They are hidden because we have lived with them for so long, they have become part of our routine, and we have never had a reason to question them. As she writes in the piece, “But they are there, quietly shaping every aspect of how we think, feel, and act. As the psychologist Carol Dweck’s groundbreaking work on mindsets has shown, the sets of beliefs we hold about ourselves are key to our ability to learn, adapt, and grow and to our performance and results. Bottom line: Whether we’re aware of them or not, our beliefs affect our outcomes.”
She notes seven of the most common hidden blockers leaders experience:
- I need to be involved. The belief that you need to be part of every detail at every level, which leads to micromanagement, bottlenecked decisions, and less leverage from your team.
- I need it done now. The belief that you need immediate results, no matter what, creates false urgency, rushed execution, increased errors, and burnout.
- I know I’m right. The belief that you—and only you—know the answers to the problems at hand, which shuts down collaboration, leads you to dismiss input, and results in missed opportunities and reduced innovation.
- I can’t make a mistake. The belief that your performance must be flawless, which can lead to unhealthy perfectionism, indecision, and risk avoidance.
- If I can do it, so can you. The belief that others’ performance must be like yours to be acceptable, which leads you to set unrealistic or unnecessary expectations, underestimate others’ skills, and limit development.
- I can’t say no. The belief that you must always step up to the plate when asked, which results in overwork, blurred priorities, and poor boundary setting.
- I don’t belong here. The belief that you don’t fit in where you are or at your level, which fuels debilitating impostor syndrome and self-sabotage, and reduces your ability to communicate, visibility, and influence.
If any of these resonate with you, at least you know you’re not alone. One or more of these hidden blockers could be creating issues for you without you even realizing it. Fortunately, as outlined in the article, there is a framework that you can adopt to move past your hidden blockers.
Step One: Uncover the blocker. Recognize the problem and name the belief that’s creating it.
Step Two: Unpack the belief. Reflect on where it came from, how it might have once served you, and how it is limiting you now.
Step Three: Reframe the belief. Turn it into something more productive and embed that new perspective into behavioral changes and tangible action.
Uncover
There are times when you know there is something holding you back, even if you’re not sure what it is. You may have stagnated in your role, seen your employee engagement dip, or missed important goals. Other times it may be less obvious, a gut feeling that is gnawing at you, or a lack of motivation.
Unpack
Discovering your hidden blocker is only the first step. Being aware of it doesn’t mean it will be easy to change. In order to move forward, you need to accept it for what it is, without judgment. Understand how it is affecting you and those around you. Embrace it and seek to understand why it’s there and how it came to be. What were you protecting yourself from? Then let it go.
Reframe
Now that you’ve done the hard work of understanding and accepting any hidden blockers, it is time to replace the belief with a new perspective that supports your new behavior. A good way to do this is to start with the end result and work backward. Capitalize on the understanding you gained unpacking the limiting belief to build on the healthy aspect of your management style.
Working through this process provides you with a framework to help those on your team. Everyone has hidden blockers to some degree, and by showing your willingness to invest in your own issues, you are modeling the behavior for others. This builds credibility and trust with others, making them more receptive to your help.
For example, the article highlights the following scenario: “Say you have a highly capable team member who consistently misses opportunities to showcase her achievements. Whereas you might previously have seen this solely as a function of poor communication skills, you might now recognize it as potentially stemming from the I don’t belong here blocker and begin to approach feedback conversations with her differently. Instead of advising on behavior (“You should speak up and highlight your wins more often”), you can encourage her to first explore the underlying belief getting in her way (“When you think about mentioning all the work you’ve done to peers and senior leaders, what thoughts and feelings come up?”). I’m not suggesting you function as a therapist or supply answers, just that you put on your coaching hat to help others reflect and embrace productive change.”
As you and your team become more aware of hidden blockers, you can support others at the company and potentially impact the culture in positive ways. As the author points out, “This is the way it’s always been done, failure is not an option, that’s not our job, or we stay the course no matter what, each of which can drive actions that diminish rather than enhance productivity and performance.”
Self-awareness and a willingness to question ourselves, asking why when we see we are struggling, allows us to be more open to change. Creating a growth-oriented inner narrative moves us towards our full potential. We’re more intentional about how we show up and better equipped to create an environment where we can help others uncover and address their own hidden blockers. The result can drive new innovation, improve productivity, and grow revenue.
For specific examples of hidden blockers, we encourage you to read the article. For questions about hiring and building a strong executive leadership team, send us a note. Our executive recruiters can help you identify and find the right candidates for your organization.
For more information on effective leadership, visit our blog.