The 6 Pillars of Leadership as a Practice
The word “leadership” is ubiquitous across our entire identity at Pilea. One might think it’s merely keeping up with the times (leadership is so hot right now), but it’s more fundamental than that; it’s something at the core of each of us, the reason we do this work.
And it starts with the bold claim that the world is starving for leaders.
You might read that and immediately imagine what we mean by leaders. Maybe you’re thinking about someone giving a rousing speech, someone who has come up with an innovative idea that spawns a massive business, or someone who stands for your values and will fight for you. We’ve been raised with an idealized version of leadership that’s often portrayed as a person free of fear who always has the right answers and who never backs down.
There is definite power in that understanding of a leader, and each of those examples is a compelling vision I’d encourage all of us to strive toward if it’s calling. But it isn't the whole story. To us, leadership isn't just moving an audience, becoming successful, or being a champion. Rather, it's a way of approaching any of those things, a way of choosing to relate to our lives rather than viewing life as a mountain to climb.
The other missing piece is that none of those visions of leadership show what it takes for a person to get to the point of being a leader. They bypass the dedication and mistakes along the way to making a statement that creates a movement, the bad ideas and bad hires along the way to building a business that changes the world, and the courage and fear and heartbreak along the way to making a stand for others' rights. For every vision of leadership, the difficult stages of growth are just as important as the moment of glory itself.
Leadership is found in our approach to the world -- to what's here, what we see is next, and what's in between. It’s a deceptively simple but profound way of viewing and understanding something humans have been trying to describe for centuries.
At Pilea, we describe it as treating leadership as a practice.
Viewing leadership as a practice means that we are always given opportunities to do better. It means we get to choose our relationship to any task, activity, moment, relationship -- anything! -- in life. It means that our orientation to things matters. It means no one has everything figured out, no matter how many times it has been done.
There are some foundational principles to leadership being a practice that can help us to improve our leadership on a moment-to-moment basis. We like to offer them in relation to sports, where many people first were exposed to the idea of practice. The metaphor may fit for you and it may not; either way, we encourage you to create these principles as your own and to fit them to your own experience.
1. Leadership is grounded in something.
What makes practice "practice" instead of play or random action is that it is grounded in a focus and also in pursuit of something. I may choose to practice my free throws because that is what I've decided is an important part of my game. That's where I'm committed.
I might pick a particular aspect of my shot or body movement, focusing on my elbow or my wrist or how I grip the ball. And I might set a goal to make 9 out of 10 on average. Those are the places I’m focusing my attention.
Similarly, practicing leadership means establishing our ground -- in our values and in what we seek for the world. Without that, we're back to random action, a kid throwing up a ball without purpose.
Being a leader in practice is like being a tree. It is set and solid in the soil, sending its roots down and out. And at the very same time, it is in the process of growing upward and outward. A tree is grounded while growing.
That is where we start as leaders when we acknowledge leadership as a practice.
The key thing to remember is that every one of our actions is a communication, a transmission -- to others, to ourselves, and to the broader world. We're communicating our attitudes, our beliefs, our values, and our levels of commitment to them, and we're also communicating what can be expected from us when things don't go to plan.
What creates leadership is being conscious of this such that we allow every moment to be a new opportunity to practice, a chance to find ground before acting knowing that there is always another small way we can relax our elbow or wrist to move our shot even closer to flawless.
2. Leadership is a choice.
Kari often says that leadership is going first when four cars converge at a four-way stop. What the metaphor reveals is that leadership is not something that happens to us, it is something we choose into.
That doesn't mean leadership equates to always being in action. Actually, sometimes leading means intentionally stopping! But that stopping comes as a willful, intentional choice (this is an especially important lesson for founders).
There is always a reason to not lead, to defer, to let life go by. Just as there is always a reason not to pick up the ball and practice dribbling. It's that choice -- and our relationship to that choice -- that makes the difference. Are we deepening our practice or phoning it in? Are we empowering our actions or letting ourselves be victims? Being in practice means choosing back in.
You'll notice leaders in the real world because others pick up their actions -- they create choice for others. The practice of leadership is opening the door and stepping into it. In doing so, we invite others to do the same.
3. Leadership happens in the moment.
We often describe this as leadership being emergent. There is no way to predict or prepare fully for what’s going to happen. Being in our practice means being ready to respond.
It doesn't matter how many jump shots you've taken or made before. What matters is this one. Still, practice builds muscle memory that reinforces the habit. We get used to shooting.
The same is true for stepping into a leadership moment. It doesn't matter how much you've led before, you still get to choose to act or not act in each moment. And consistently choosing powerfully can make each new choice feel easier, less daunting, less stressful, and more impactful.
In fact, it's often in between the moments we really think matter that leadership opportunities most arise. It’s how we choose to recover after a big game or how we choose to warm up and prepare. How we respond to someone when we're caught off guard and thinking about something else. How we bounce back after losing our biggest client or hitting a wall in our business. Practicing leaders seek out what the moment needs, even when it is the moment that has found them.
4. Leadership happens for anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Right now, there are three-year-olds practicing floating and kicking in a pool. Right now, there are 80-year-olds practicing floating and kicking in a pool. And right now, there is an Olympic champion practicing kicking and floating in a pool. Each of them is making a choice to be in the practice of their craft (well, maybe the three-year-old was forcefully dropped in by their parents, but they can choose not to kick).
The Universe is constantly offering us chances to live into our values, to choose to act in the creation of the world as we want it, to step through the door to what the moment needs. Our job title, our credentials, our education, our age, our gender -- they don't matter. Leadership is always here for us to practice.
Our job is to be ready to be in practice, to adjust, to get better, and to remain focused on what wants to happen. What door can we open with our leadership?
Successful leaders understand that their job isn’t to simply lead followers, but to create other leaders who are ready and willing to take on the practice at any time. We do this by helping others to see their own unique gifts and providing them with opportunities to step in.
5. Leadership isn't always pretty; in fact, it can be ugly.
We don't often see the dog days of practice: the running of laps, the blistered feet, the exhaustion. We only see the final product, the picture-perfect highlight reel. Those moments are important -- remember, it always happens in the context of a moment -- but they aren't everything.
Being in the practice of leadership means letting our humanity in and out. It means making mistakes (often a lot of them) and taking responsibility for those mistakes as needed. It means being open to the feedback offered to us -- whether it is in the form of business data, a missed shot, or an angry partner -- and choosing to try again (and again, and again, and again, and again) along the way toward creating the world we seek, which we know might never happen.
This is true for supporting others as they practice their leadership as well, because they will make mistakes. It’s a practice of remaining grounded in our focus and mission in the midst of stumbles; choosing back in when it's dark and ugly is a practice in leadership.
6. Leadership is never finished.
When Michael Jordan was by far the most dominant player in basketball, he knew his work wasn't done. He knew there were still aspects of his game he could improve or ways he could find another edge. We wouldn’t really recommend his strategy for finding that edge, however (he would make up stories about other players, telling himself they made a comment to slight him or otherwise offended him so that he could draw from that resentment).
Aside from his tactics, the lesson is vital for any leader. The practice never stops. In yoga, we learn we can never get the perfect downward dog, that it's always an exploration in depth. So, too, is leadership. There is always another new situation that challenges us in unforeseen ways, always another choice to make to offer love or presence to others. Always another choice to act that normally slips through our consciousness. Being committed to the act of leadership as a practice means being committed for our lifetime.
Despite what books or movies might tell us, leadership isn't about getting it right. It isn't about fixing ourselves or finding the one answer. It's about choosing into who we are meant to be for every moment we can. That’s the type of leadership we believe the world needs more than ever right now. It’s what we’re committed to at Pilea, as a team and in the expression of our work. If you want to explore that model of leadership for yourself, grab some time with us. We’d love to talk.