Every now and then, a coaching client or a delegate on a course or in an event I'm facilitating will say something which is supremely quotable and, on reflection, makes me think 'that'd make a great title for a blog!' Yesterday, in my very final coaching session of the year, that very thing happened!
I had the final session with a client I've worked with through much of 2024 and we were reflecting on the journey over those coaching sessions, as is common at the end of an engagement. The client shared her thoughts, insights and experience and one of the things that she'd really discovered as she'd gone through the process of seeking a promotion, facing adversity and then ultimately achieving it, was that the increased level of seniority had changed her work experience in ways she hadn't anticipated, but which I've seen happen time and time again across many clients whose roles and seniority have grown during our time together.
I've written before, way back in September '22 about a leadership concept called Balcony and Dancefloor. The concept refers to the idea that as you rise up the organisational hierarchy, you move from roles on the dancefloor (where you're responsible for dancing, being in the dance) to roles on the balcony (where you're over the dance, orchestrating the dancing, identifying ways to make the dance better or more effective, spotting threats and opportunities on the horizon which might affect the dance in the future).
The coaching client reflected that her promotion had moved her from a role where she was responsible for delivery, to one (perhaps on the staircase between the dancefloor and balcony) where she was both delivering but also leading on delivery and directing the delivery of others. During this reflection, she admitted that, at times in her new role, she felt like she wasn't doing very much. "I feel like leadership is a scam" she said! We both laughed at the statement and as I asked her to say more about it, she explained exactly the concept I've outlined above.
In the junior role, one major challenge that she'd faced and which had been highlighted by her line manager and other senior people in the business, was that she had a crazy work-rate and, at times, overworked herself. Now, in a more senior role and being paid more, she felt like she wasn't working as hard and that feeling sat awkwardly with her.
That sentiment is EXTREMELY common! It's almost a form of imposter syndrome, where rather than feeling like you don't deserve your achievements or worrying that you're going to be found out, you don't feel like you're actually doing very much. Overcoming this requires a reframe of how you understand work. I wrote another blog, back in May '22, where I spoke about my own experiences of hard work and my developing understanding of what this actually meant. It's not that you're not working as hard, it's simply that you're engaged in a different type of work. You're over it, rather than being in it.
A good analogy is to think of the roles of coaches in an American Football team. If you came along to observe a practice of the East Kilbride Pirates, during those two hours you'd see the positional coaches; busy, active and engaged with their players for the full duration of the practice. They're the closest to our players, teaching, observing, demonstrating, giving feedback, answering questions, asking questions and challenging, making sure that their guys know exactly what they need to do in the myriad situations they'll face in a game. If we were a professional team with paid coaches (none of us are paid, maybe fifteen coaches in the whole of British American Football get paid at all and I'd estimate that less than five of those get paid enough to live off) , these guys would be the lowest paid coaches on the staff.
Then you have the co-ordinators; offensive and defensive, responsible for designing, installing and implementing the schemes and plays we run and then calling those in a game. During a practice, they might have a positional responsibility (it's common, for example, for the offensive coordinator to also coach the quarterbacks) but they may not, and if they don't, they'll be moving between the positional groups, observing and giving feedback to the coaches. However, they'll have been more closely involved in designing the practice plan than their positional guys and will tell those coaches what they want installed that week, and when the team are in a part of practice where they're scrimmaging (the offense are playing against the defense and running plays), it'll be the coordinators who are running these sections and calling the plays throughout.
Then you'll see me in my role as Head Coach. I have no positional responsibility (unless, for example I have to cover someone in the case of illness) and I don't call plays in scrimmage time, so for a LOT of practice, I'm standing watching, walking around asking questions and reflecting back what I see, or blowing my whistle to ensure that the practice runs tight to the planned schedule. I am the LEAST hands on of the coaches, the least 'busy' during a practice. However I'd be the one with the highest salary, if we were a professional team.
In that scenario, the coaches aren't being paid for busyness, they're being paid for responsibility and for output. If our team is losing more than it's winning, my head is first on the chopping block. I need to find solutions. If we're losing but we're really good on Offense (scoring lost of points, moving the ball well) but our Defense is like a leaky sieve, I might be safe but the Defensive Coordinator will be first up against the wall. My job is to hire a staff, manage that staff, make sure they have what they need and remove obstacles to them doing their jobs, set and manage the culture of the team, design and run practices and meetings, etc. It looks less hands on because I'm not working directly with players 24/7 like a positional coach, but it's no less busy.
As you climb the ladder of an organisation or, if you build an organisation of your own and it grows, your role and responsibilities will grown and evolve. You might need to pick up new skills or flex new muscles in order to deliver what's needed. But one thing's for sure - you will CERTAINLY need a mindset shift to recognise that leading and delivering feel different. And that's not to say that one is easier or less important than the other; only that the different roles ask different things of you and you may need to reframe how you view your own contribution. Leadership isn't a scam, but it's certainly a different role to being led!
Anyway, this is the final blog post for me in 2024 and I'd like to take the opportunity to thank you for taking the time to read it. I passed a little milestone of twenty thousand blog reads a few weeks back and it still amazes me that people take the time out of their week to engage with my content and share their thoughts. I hope that you have a wonderful, restful Christmas period and go into the New Year with energy, passion and enthusiasm for the things and the people you love. As always, if there's anything I can help you with, please reach out and I hope our paths cross in 2025!
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