Leading While Limping
Written by: Santarvis Brown, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
We’ve all been there before. "I love my leader, but… he’s a terrible people person… she has no grey area… he overexplains everything… she micro-manages way too much." Have you ever experienced this yourself? Have you had a leader you love, yet that same leader seems to have inadequacies in their leadership style?
Guess what?
Your leader is human. As leaders, one of the most important things we can do is become self-aware. Great leaders are not flawless. Great leaders understand inadequacies, personal hang-ups, and career and personal issues that impact their leadership style. Great leaders are great because they understand how to lead with a limp.
What is leading with a limp?
To understand leading with a limp, it is important to know the difference between artificial and authentic leadership. Artificial leadership is not bad. However, if you force yourself to lead in a style that is unnatural to you because a book or colleague said that is how you must lead, you will have challenges. Most likely, those challenges will cause you to struggle while you hide your personal leadership challenges. An authentic form of leadership allows you to use your leadership struggles to empower others who may have similar challenges.
Take public speaking. As a leader, you will likely need to stand up in front of your team, or larger groups to train, present data, or provide information. You can imagine that this leadership requirement is a challenge for someone afraid of speaking in public. An artificial leader will “suck it up,” stand up and likely stumble through the presentation. The authentic leader lays it all out there. Such as this:
“Today, we will be talking about workplace safety. But the first thing I want to tell you is that I am terrified of speaking in front of an audience. I am going to stumble on my words. I am going to stutter. I am going to forget what I wanted to say. So, you should expect that I’ll pick on some of you to answer questions or provide insight – you know, so we can all be terrified together.”
Standing up in front of your audience and saying this may get you a few laughs. But what you are also doing is loosening things up for your audience. You are a leader, and you are showing your team that you have struggled the same as everyone else. You are also showing your team that it is okay to have flaws. It is also okay to embrace them.
This style of self-awareness in leadership is called leading with a limp. Identifying your struggles and using them to your benefit as a leader.
The benefit of leading with a limp
There are many reasons why leading with a limp is helpful on personal level. As a leader, the strength you are building from your own inadequacies is a healthy team environment. You are using your flaws to help others with those same challenges. You are also leading by example in sharing that we all have authentic challenges, and a team improves when we work to support each other rather than force a person to become an artificial employee or leader.
Santarvis Brown, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Dr. Santarvis Brown has spent 15+ years serving as a leader, innovator, and changemaker in education, showcasing in-depth insight as an administrator, educator, and program director. A noted speaker, researcher, and full professor, he has lent his speaking talent to many community and educational forums, serving as a keynote speaker. He has also penned several publications tackling issues in civic service, faith, leadership, and education.
