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I played a lot of hockey in my youth. I loved it. And I was pretty good at it. In my 20’s, I took a few years’ break as I travelled the world. When I decided to start playing again in my early 30’s, I found the anticipation of restarting challenging. Would I be good enough? Did I still have the skills and the fitness? Lots of doubts in my mind.

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As I emerge from my sabbatical period, I’m finding myself feeling a bit the same. 

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To be sure, the past few months have been time well spent. I’ve deep-dived into areas I’ve been really curious about, including exploring the types of leadership we need to grow in the face of our gnarly global challenges, and how to sustain leadership development efforts beyond simple fixes. I’ve fallen in love with the power of community, and reconnected with my sense of purpose and vision for the work I do. But more on that later…

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For now, I reckon it’s worth sharing what it’s like for me to step back onto the ‘stage’ after an extended period off it. (By the way, I wrote this piece about creating a ‘sandpit’ for yourself as an alternative to being on the ‘stage’ as a leader - it’s worth the quick read).

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As I mentioned in the video, I’ve got a whole lot of fresh thinking that I’m excited to share with you. Yet, with this excitement comes doubt. Are my ideas any good? Do I really have something worthwhile from my time away? Am I in sync with what my clients and community actually care about? Because, you know, I should have something amazing to show for my sabbatical, right?

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I’m shoulding all over myself. Not helpful.

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Does this sound familiar? Do you ever feel the pressure to lead? To show people the way? To have all the answers? Do you ever tell yourself the story that you need to justify your title and time in the chair as ‘leader’ by being just plain awesome?

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Whenever I see this happen in organisational environments, it has one main effect: it pushes people away, rather than invites them in. 

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We don’t need your perfection. We want your invitation.

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What’s helping me overcome those ‘shoulds’ is invitations to conversation. And, as I sit down with clients and ask what’s happening in their world, we get to sharing ideas, evolving them together, and finding ways to work together. Co-creation through conversation. They love it, and I love it.

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How could you invite someone into conversation today to co-create something together?

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Here’s your invitation from me: if you’d like to explore ideas on anything related to leadership, and leadership development, please get in touch. I’m taking bookings for new work from early June. I’d love to see what we can co-create together.

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