“Don’t walk behind me, I may not want to lead.
Don’t walk before me, I may not want to follow.
Walk by my side and let us be friends.”
-Thomas Mann
In our fast-changing and troubled world, this quote contains a good underlying message for everyone: We are all in this together.
As leaders in organizations, walking side by side and being friends with our employees is difficult. Yet we know we should not walk nor lead alone. An important remedy for leadership isolation is to participate in a roundtable discussion group with other people in leadership positions.
By listening and talking to people with similar challenges, we can gain perspective, check our ideas, learn to be more reflective, and help others. Many of these roundtables are available around the world. I offer them to all my coaching clients, who find them extremely beneficial.
Here are my top reasons for you to consider participating in a Leadership Roundtable group:
- You learn to listen better
- You receive feedback on your ideas
- Through hearing other people’s stories, you learn to better understand and appreciate your own story.
- You get the good feeling that other’s “get” you
- You learn how to effectively help others
- You get feedback and clarity about yourself and your business
- You feel camaraderie, the sense that you are part of a team
- You learn to benefit from the wisdom of the group. Research tells us that a community collectively knows more than any single member
- In a group we are freer to show our real self than at work, where we often have to wear masks to conceal our real selves.
- In a group we learn how to manage ourselves emotionally, which is one of the key components of emotional intelligence.
I have been conducting leadership groups for the past 20 years, and will be starting a new group in January 2015. We will be holding a preview for this group on Tuesday December 9th from 8-9:30am. Please let me know if you would like to attend, or if you would like more information about the group but cannot attend.