What you must give up to be a disruptive leader

Let's talk about leadership in disruptive times. We’re not out of the pandemic woods yet — and the events of last year made it clear there is a lot about our world that needs disrupting.

First of all, “leadership” is not a title, it's a mindset. When you see a change that needs to happen you put on the mantle of leadership and become that leader who helps people understand your vision, no matter what your business card says.

In disruptive times, leadership is all the more important because it's tough to create big change. What's so important about disruptive leadership is knowing you can’t do it alone. To make big-scale change you must empower your team and the people who follow you because it's they who will make the change work.

I think in many ways that's the most interesting thing about leadership in disruptive times: you have to give up the fallacy that you are in control. Change is uncomfortable, and many people resist it. You can’t make them change, you must inspire them to change. And you do that by investing in the relationship with your followers so that you are confident that when the moment comes when you give the command for action, they will act.

Where have you given up control so you could lead more effectively and effortlessly? Hit reply and let me know. I love hearing from you!

My Latest:

• I'm developing a cohort-based course on Disruptive Leadership. We'll start small, gather feedback, iterate, and see how it goes. And I need your help developing it -- if you're curious, learn more and fill out this form to let me know.

• What does *control* mean in the context of modern leadership? I spoke live this week about how shrinking of the power distance in organizations thanks to the rise of customer feedback and the use of collaboration technologies. Watch the replay to discover how leaders (you!) can update your mindset about leadership and control. And join me live next week! I’ll be sharing why we need to redefine “power” on Tuesday at 9 am PT / 12 pm ET on LinkedIn and Facebook Live.

• A picture is worth a thousand words… and so is your digital body language! Leaders can’t afford to ignore what our digital body language is saying to our bosses, teams, and even friends. In my new LinkedIn newsletter Leading Disruption, I share the biggest takeaways from my friend Erica Dhawan about how you can improve your digital body language to communicate and lead with grace.

• I’m excited about this article “Three Ways Digital Transformation Can Close The Diversity Leadership Gap” because it combines three of my passions -- technology, leadership, and advancing opportunities for women and people of color. The most striking stat is that at the very first level of promotion to manager, women of color drop off significantly in representation to 67% of their entry-level population compared to 126% of white men. The glass ceiling for women of color is far lower than we realized. Read the article for three specific ways digital transformation can make a difference.

Good Things:

• Good Reads: I loved the New York Times discussion earlier this month about languishing — and its flipside, flourishing. Check out the free 10 question flourishing assessment here. It’s worth your time to do a quick “flourish” audit.

• Referrals: Digital Body Language by my friend Erica Dhawan. If you haven’t gotten the message yet, read this book!

• Resource: Have you heard of krisp.ai? Now that I have it, I’m never going back. It’s a noise cancelling software that eliminates sounds of construction, lawn mowing, and (very importantly) typing while you’re on video calls. I love it!

Do you have ideas to share or questions for me? Please send them to [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you!