It’s Delicate
Okay, I know Taylor Swift has been overexposed and unedited of late, but with a teenage daughter who is steeped in her lyrics and occasionally even quizzes me on her body of work, I cannot help but think of her song title “Delicate,” as it relates to the sensitive tightrope leaders walk today.
My clients often straddle conflicting needs and goals, pulling them in different directions, and are challenged to find the through line. Often, the beauty of coaching sessions is in tweezing out the way forward that honors different and even conflicting perspectives with a creative twist. Below are some of the continuums my clients have been navigating of late, and many of these are perennial, professional challenges you may also relate to:
How to give employees autonomy and room to lead, while also being involved enough to routinely check the approach, thinking and quality of their work
How to be authentic and real with one’s team while also maintaining professionalism, discretion and sensitivity.
How to do one’s job to the best of one’s ability, while maintaining boundaries and energy for important people and parts of one’s life
How to promote one’s contributions and advocate when one is in the “right,” while also wanting to be humble and a selfless team player.
How to be clear and direct with hard messages, while also still be encouraging and optimistic about the future.
It’s all so delicate that it requires ongoing reflection and intentionality. Most of all, this work requires acceptance that it will be impossible to please all people, all of the time. This is why leadership is much more art than science, and is bound to include “falls” along the way!
Happy balancing in whatever tightropes you may be walking at the moment.
