Up until a certain point in their career, high achievers are successful by delivering outstanding individual contributions. Until they come to a point of needing to obtain leadership roles; suddenly, the skills that got them where they are, will no longer take them upwards in their career.

These high achievers need to go through three growing pains in this leadership phase to develop into great leaders: identity threat, imposter syndrome and invisible hero.

If you choose a career that involves a team (this applies less to lone-rangers or independents), there comes an inflexion point in one’s career, where getting wins on the board requires a different set of skills to continue up the career ladder than what you have been accustomed to so far.

Suddenly, high performance ratings become less about being that high achiever who always delivers amazing individual contributions and more about your ability to activate the collective and get others to perform well. This shift from a A-team star player to a seasoned coach is for many a swerve in the road and can feel, career-wise, as if they have suddenly hit a wall.

At this critical point in a career journey, working harder to personally deliver great results is no longer enough to obtain a leadership role in the corporate pyramid. This is where hard skills reach a glass ceiling and the soft skills kick in.

For high achievers who thrive on personal wins, self-competitive advancement and continuous improvement - this point in their career can feel like a rude awakening. For some, the ego, narcissistic, or internal focus on growth and ambition needs to be traded in for developing and celebrating the wins of others .

In some ways, this phase from team lead to team manager can be equivalent to puberty - an awkward stage of life which involves immense personal growth, the development of a personal identity, accountability, responsibility and an awareness that you are not the centre of the universe. A period full of strife, constant questioning, new learnings, and unfamiliar territory that can feel lonely, hyper-critical and even defacing.

In their career, people either grow and pass through this phase to become great leaders at the other end, or decide that becoming a leader is not actually what drives them and gives them a sense of accomplishment in life. These latter individuals, shift gears and decide that instead of vying for that leadership job they would rather remain a star player who continues to achieve great things from delivering and in most cases than not, these outstanding achievers often continue to succeed as specialists; becoming an ace in their craft.

For those high achievers who continue to pursue the leadership path, the bumpy track can often feel like an unlearning of certain habits and behaviours that have so far served them well and helped to get them where they are today.

The growing pains are:

Identity threat
Imposter syndrome
Invisible hero

The irony is that these growing pains seem negative and undesirable, but overcoming these growing pains is what high achievers need to pursue to become great leaders. And for many, battling these growing pains remains a constant or frequent recurrence throughout their leadership career. Read on, read on. I promise it will all make sense…. eventually.

Identity Threat

Identity threat can rear its ugly head when high achievers are used to being the voice of truth or source of knowledge, calling the shots. Being a great leaders requires being more curious and open-minded and listening to the perspectives of many before coming to a final conclusion. It is about realising that at the end of the day, people will care more about how you made them feel, and less about something smart that you said. The identity of a high achiever can feel under threat when they are a leader serving the common purpose alongside the needs, struggles and desires of every single team member. For high achievers it can feel like they are unlearning how to deliver value when, instead of talking they need to be listening, when instead of answering they need to be questioning, and when instead of presenting, they need to be nodding.

Imposter Syndrome

This growing pain needs no introduction. A well-known affliction of many a successful person, this growing pain becomes more acute in leaders because they are expected to know all the answers and be the experienced ‘sensei’. In reality, great leaders don’t need to know everything and in fact, the longer they are in the leadership role and away from the delivery side, on the tools and playing field, the further they are to truly understanding the ins and outs of the situation. But, that does not mean they can still keep on top of what needs to happen to deliver great outcomes. Leaders are the lighthouses of the vast oceans; they are good at seeing ships in distress and knowing how to guide them to safety. Great leaders need to become comfortable with not knowing everything and being able to ask the right questions to make sound judgements, valuable recommendations and tough decisions. For high achievers coming up the ranks that are accustomed to achieving success through their own sweat and tears, suddenly achieving success from leading others to deliver great outputs can feel like a cheat or like they are undeserving of the outcome. It can be really challenging for these high achievers to be ok with feelings of discomfort, the fear of looking stupid, and having to let go of the need for feelings of validation, reinforcement and affirmation of being the expert, the brilliant know-it-all, the super-human and the genius.

Invisible Hero

"A leader is best when people barely know s/he exists. When her/his work is done, her/his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves." —Lao Tzu

Wow, this is a tough one for high achievers to swallow. After being in the spotlight, receiving accolades for their achievements, constant pats on the back, high fives and even a slew of medals and trophies over the course of their lives, these guns are suddenly asked to put all that aside and take enjoyment from pumping up the glowing achievements of others, to use “we” instead of “I”, to sing the praises of their team’s collaborative efforts, to negotiate and compromise with their competitors, disagreeable peers, nemesis and enemies and to spend copious amounts of their precious time and energy working tirelessly to develop other people’s strengths and capabilities instead of their own.

Summary

Well, hopefully by now, it has all eventually made sense. Becoming a great leader may seem like it a path full of negatives and unlearnings in some respects, but there are immense positives….

Find the spark - For some reason, the rewards of seeing others discover their superpowers can feel greater than when you discover your own. Perhaps because you are on this journey with another human, sharing the experience of their downs and ups and this leads to an amazing human connection. To make it even more complex and dramatic, as a leader you can amplify success and people’s capabilities by knowing how to pair and team people up with one another. When you become apt at building a network of individual team members you can achieve amazing results.
Find the connection - High achievers love challenges, opportunities for constant learning and improvements and these are endless pits when it comes to motivating and collaborating with others because everyone you work with is different. So while you develop tools and skills, each experience is a new adventure and puzzle to solve.
Find the Multiplier - Probably one of the biggest upsides for high achievers that become great leaders is ‘scale’. While once it felt great to achieve greatness with your own power and determination, when you guide a team to great outcomes, you suddenly realise the intensity and power of achieving greatness at a larger magnitude. The only way to truly expand your goals and outputs is to bring more and more humans together for greater impact. This comes not only from pure numbers of people, but from the correct alignment and direction of large numbers of people and that takes great leadership - all the way from vision through to execution.

For all those high achievers out there aspiring to become great leaders, I hope you push through the growing pains knowing there will be ample rewards from helping others and achieving goals through the acts of many.

As stated in the 2005 American biographical sports drama film ‘Coach Carter’, starring Samuel L. Jackson:

“You said we’re a team. One person struggles, we all struggle. One person triumphs, we all triumph.” Jason Lyle, Coach Carter

Thanks for reading!

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