A great way to measure how well you are doing is by looking back at your previous self.  You can get some great insights into how you grew with an honest reflection.  Let’s measure ourselves by looking at our mindset in certain situations. We will cover 3 areas to reflect on.  We won’t be talking about any metrics but rather how we dealt with the environment around us.

There is no right or wrong place to be, as we are all in different spots in our journey.  This blog is a judgement-free zone, here to help you grow.

Leading through a crisis.

When there is uncertainty at home, the workplace or in the world, we start to notice the qualities of leaders.  We gravitate towards leaders that give us hope and believe that they will guide us to a better day.  We have a once-in-a-lifetime moment to measure how we handled the current crisis.  Let’s see how we did.

Clarification: I am not downplaying the lives lost during this pandemic.  This is to help us be better for the next crisis.

Wasn’t ready.

Mental illness is real, and no one is immune to it.  Some people across the world were already dealing with a mental illness, and with the current pandemic, that number grew.  Mental health doesn’t have any filters, and leaders also felt the pain.  Is someone close to you struggling right now? Did you struggle during this pandemic?  It’s okay if you did, to a certain extent, everyone did. 

This is a moment for you to get the right help you need.  In a previous article on mental health, I talk about an outdated definition of success.  The definition is changing and not ‘holding it together’ will not be tied to failure.  Loneliness, depression, anxiety and many other reasons were amplified as the world shut down.  There are a lot of great services and people ready to help you.  Don’t ignore how you feel and get the right help you need.

Adversity.

Mental health isn’t the only reason people weren’t ready.  There are some who never dealt with adversity before.  The last global crisis of this kind was around the last World War, so it’s not like we had opportunities to learn.  How did you perform when dealing with uncertainty?  Did you delay stepping forward when it mattered? Did you find some courage that you never used before?

Reflect on how you grew as a leader, so the next time it is not foreign to you.

Held your own.

You saw the tidal wave of work to manage this crisis and you held steady.  You didn’t take a step back and you made some progress.  I talked to several people who threw out their current strategic plans to manage the crisis, they felt they had no choice.

After a while when things started to settle, what was your mindset?  Was it to continue to wait for this virus to playout and hope for a vaccine?  It can be hard to make decisions with uncertainty around us.  However, it’s important to understand why you struggled to make decisions without knowing everything.

I am not implying that you should make long-lasting decisions in a crisis, without thinking them through. There was a lot of change waiting to happen, and some seized the moment.

An opportunity to change.

There were those who kept repeating a famous quote by Winston Churchill, “never let a good crisis go to waste.”  People who were saying it were not disrespecting those who had fallen ill but realized they saw a moment to change their environment.  Lots of industries were ripe for disruption and many leaders led the way.

The conditions have to be right for someone to make a change in uncertain times. Their level of risk tolerance is higher compared to others.  This confidence comes from years of practice and believing in yourself.  The environment outside of our control also plays a role.  Up to this point, leaders who made changes probably were rewarded for their previous efforts, which gave them the confidence to move forward.

One thing change agents need to be aware of is to show compassion for those struggling.  You don’t know the pain others are dealing with.  It’s great to make a change, but in a crisis, it’s not easy for everyone. Be mindful.

Are you a bottleneck?

Let’s change gears a bit.

Processes ensure information and products flow correctly within an organization, to help reach our goals.  Most organizations don’t write down their processes, as they are just part of the organizational norm.  For those lucky enough to have them well documented, you can literally see the bottlenecks.

A bottleneck is when a process has to go through a step, that ends up slowing it down and, in some cases, bringing it to a complete halt.  There are many cases where people are the bottleneck. Are you the bottleneck?

Ask yourself, how many processes run through me before moving forward? Do you really need to be someone who approves a step?  Why can’t the system gather the right information to empower others to move things forward.

What you want to measure here is how many times you are a friction point in a process.  If you are constantly approving decisions in a day, the people around aren’t empowered enough.  Raise your awareness to see what processes you are in and notice how they flow through you.  The goal is to empower those around you.

Help achieve someone’s goal.

There are more than enough opportunities for people to step up and step forward in our workplaces.  Is there a path to grow and progress in your corporation? Do you feel you have to step over someone to get a promotion? I hope you don’t.

We don’t need to bury someone to move forward.  I am guilty of this early in my career.  About 6-7 years ago I would try to overrun anyone to move up.  I met a mentor along the way that showed me how to be humble and help others. It changed everything.  What I learned is that I need to measure myself on how I have helped others progress in their careers.

That is the measure you need to focus on, have you helped someone reach their career goals.  Just think how much better our workplace and society would be if this was a measure for everyone.  I am not asking you to do someone’s work, but to help them move forward.

Final Thought.

I only picked 3 measures, but there are many more.  The goal is to build a good foundation to help ourselves and the people around us. If we measure our progress mindfully, we will define leadership correctly.