When Leadership Outgrows Your Comfort Zone

My Story from Chaos to Core Purpose

Sometimes, as leaders, we find ourselves in roles that feel like wearing a suit two sizes too big. I lived this when I moved from overseeing marketing at a credit union to being thrust into the executive team, suddenly overseeing strategy, product development, project management, and still marketing. It was during the financial crisis in 2009-2010, and it was chaotic. Everything was changing around us, and everything was changing around me. I not only had to step up into advanced leadership as part of an executive team for the first time in my career, I had the opportunity to do so in a time of serious industry and societal upheaval. I’ve since experienced versions of this a few times over and have learned that the only thing that’s predictable is change itself. And it feels like we’re accelerating into it more every day.

Scholars and leaders write about this “leveling-up” phenomenon regularly in Harvard Business Review. Herminia Ibarra and Anne Scoular (2019) call it the shift to being a coach rather than a commander, especially when the organization scales. In his seminal work related to leadership adaptability and emotional intelligence, Daniel Goleman outlines the 6 leadership styles and touts the benefit of choosing the right style for the right situation to get results. Jordan, Wade, and Terecino (2019) point out that leaders who thrive are the ones who keep learning, even as they feel the ground shifting beneath them.

For me, that constancy of learning meant embracing the chaos, listening more, and realizing that leadership is about empowering others to step into their roles fully. I had to shift from doing to guiding, and from knowing the answers to asking the right questions.

So if you’re finding yourself unexpectedly in the C-Suite, or maybe you worked your way there but still feel like a bit of an imposter where your leadership role is evolving faster than you are, I encourage you to check out the Core Purpose assessment we created at The Formation Agency.

It’s built to help you understand foundationally whether your particular leadership style and strengths align with your current role, or if it’s time to adapt. You’ll receive an alignment score in four key areas—your Genius, Spirit, Need, and Value—to help you make sense of your situation and begin a process of discovering your Core Purpose. We’ve also created a free workbook to help guide you through this process. My hope is that you can use this as a tool to know yourself better, lead yourself better, and in turn, to prepare to lead others through the chaotic change that, unfortunately, is our new normal.