12MinuteLeadership

Episode 6: 5 Leadership Myths Keeping You Stuck | 12MinuteLeadership

• Elise Boggs Morales • Season 1 • Episode 6

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Leadership myths can significantly impact our effectiveness as leaders. By examining common misconceptions about leadership, we can remove barriers that prevent our teams and organizations from reaching their full potential.

Here's what we'll cover-

• The belief that there's one leadership prototype limits our talent pool and stunts organizational growth. Introverts often make excellent leaders with strengths in listening, thoughtful decision-making, and calm under pressure
• Leaders are both born and made - natural aptitude helps, but development is essential for everyone
• True leadership is about influence, not titles - people should follow you regardless of position
• Tolerating toxic behavior from high performers undermines your culture and often costs more than it's worth
• Vulnerability in leadership builds trust, models authenticity, deepens team connections, and encourages innovation

Challenging our leadership beliefs directly impacts our actions and ultimately our results

Go to www.eliseboggs.com for more information about executive retreats, customized training, and coaching. You can also find my book "Lead Anyone" on Amazon.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the 12-Minute Leadership Podcast where, in 12 minutes or less, I'll share small things that you can put into immediate practice that will make a big difference in your leadership effectiveness. I'm your host, elise Boggs-Morales leadership professor, consultant and coach. For the last 17 years, I have helped thousands of leaders level up their influence and achieve remarkable results. If you want to trade compliance for true commitment and create your dream team, you are in the right place. Get ready for a quick hit of practical wisdom to increase your team's engagement, inspire top performance and retain your best talent. Ready to level up your influence and get better results. 12 Minutes starts now. Hi everyone, elise here, welcome to Episode 6, 5 Leadership Myths that Are Keeping you Stuck.

Speaker 1:

As leadership expert and author, john Maxwell says, everything rises and falls on leadership. I couldn't agree more. Whether your organization is thriving or surviving, clues for your current reality often lie within leadership. While acknowledgement of that fact can be sobering at times, it's ultimately empowering because it means that you have the power to change things. It's ultimately empowering because it means that you have the power to change things, since beliefs affect actions and actions impact results. Today's episode is going to focus on highlighting some common beliefs or myths that might be keeping you stuck, so that you can get different results. This list reflects insights I've gained over the last 17 years working alongside senior and executive leaders across a broad range of industries. So let's get started.

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Leadership myth number one there is one leadership prototype. When we hold this belief, we tend to have a picture of what an effective leader looks like. A common stereotypical prototype for a leader, especially in Western culture, often looks like this Extroverted, charismatic, quick in action and decision-making. The other common prototype is choosing leaders that are most similar to you, whatever those characteristics may be. Believing this myth creates several limitations. One, it limits the leadership pool of possible candidates for promotion. Two, it communicates to those who don't fit the prototype that leadership isn't accessible to them. Three, it stunts the growth of organizations because everyone in leadership tends to think and act alike. There is no diversity of thought to promote new ideas and growth. There is no diversity of thought to promote new ideas and growth.

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One group of people I often see overlooked for leadership is introverts. This could be because extroverts have more visible and obvious strengths, while the strengths of extroverts are less obvious. Introverted leaders have a quieter strength and offer much to their roles such as great listening skills, taking time to think things through before making decisions and remaining calm in stressful situations. An extroverted leader often struggles with these things. On the other hand, introverted leaders often struggle with the more relational parts of the role which extroverts can be strong in. So diversity of leadership in this sense creates a great balance of strengths.

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There is a great quote by Susan Cain that says everyone shines given the right lighting. So a question to ask yourself around this myth is are you providing the right lighting for different types of leaders to shine? Leadership myth number two leaders are born, not made. You've probably heard people argue this point before. This is not a new one. The reason I bring this up is because, as I mentioned at the top of the episode, actions reflect our beliefs. So let's reflect on our actions.

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Think for a moment about your own organization. How much time and money is invested in leadership development? In episode one, I mentioned a 2020 Forbes Coaches Council study that showed that organizations worldwide spent approximately $357 billion on corporate training, but only 25% of that went to leadership development programs. What priority does your company place on it? If the investment is limited, it's possible that the belief held is leaders are born and not made. Otherwise there would be an investment in development.

Speaker 1:

My personal belief, based on my experience, is that leaders are both born and made. Many people have a natural proclivity towards leadership. Others have less of a natural aptitude, but if they are willing and committed to learning, they can become great leaders. Even those with a natural proclivity towards leadership need ongoing development to continue to meet new challenges. I once worked at a company that required me to meet a specific leadership quota every year to meet the demands of the work. I didn't always have the option to hire, so I had to look internally within the organization to create leaders. That is when I learned that good leaders truly can come in all sorts of brilliant shapes and sizes. So some questions to ask yourself around this myth are are you promoting a variety of types of people versus just a particular prototype? And is your leadership team just like you, or is there good diversity of thought, personality and experiences to continue to grow?

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Leadership myth number three title equals influence. True, leadership is influence, but a title won't give you that. I have worked with leaders who think their voice will finally be heard once they're promoted into the next level of leadership. But if you haven't been able to cultivate influence where you are right now. Nothing will change with the new title. There's a movie I love called Flaming Hot. It's the inspiring true story of Richard Montanez, a janitor at Frito-Lay who worked his way up the ranks to become VP of multicultural sales by introducing his now famous Flaming Hot Cheeto recipe. His story illustrates the ability to influence regardless of title. So a question you can ask yourself around this myth is would people follow me if I didn't have a title?

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Leadership myth number four talent trumps toxic behavior. Almost every company has a person who is very technically competent or makes the company a lot of money but is a pain to work with. This person often keeps the HR team very busy and drains a lot of emotional and mental energy trying to manage them. They are someone who has been given a lot of chances, but ultimately things don't change. Are someone who has been given a lot of chances, but ultimately things don't change, because they usually bring a lot of needed expertise. Leaders are slow to let them go. They also can be hesitant because of the drama they anticipate in doing so. I know what it's like to be on all sides of this working for a toxic leader and choosing to leave jobs. I love tolerating toxic behavior from someone on my team longer than I should have and now working alongside many different companies with this challenge.

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So what happens when we let talent trump toxic behavior? First, it can frustrate your good talent and you could lose them because of it. It sends a mixed message about your cultural values. Your professed values aren't matching your practice values. It communicates a value of competency over character and it undermines the culture you want to create, because culture is created by what you, as a leader, both reward and punish. Also, it's expensive. I have a worksheet I use with clients called the cost of conflict, where we assign hard costs to difficult employees that have been unwilling to change, willing to change.

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By the time you calculate HR investigation and mediation time, sick time from people calling out from the stress, lost productivity and rehiring costs for losing good talent, the cost is significant. Sometimes the cost is as much as the problem person's salary, which defeats the purpose of keeping them, because they make the company money. The purpose of keeping them because they make the company money. Maybe they are actually causing you to lose money. So why do we hang on? It often reflects a limited mindset that you could find someone who is both technically competent and can work well with others. In my experience, these unicorns are more common than you think, and when you decide to draw a line in the sand and not settle for less than your professed values, somehow the world opens up and the right person for the job often finds you. So the question here is is there someone who doesn't represent your company's values? That has been kept too long? How might you be able to grow and put your energy into other things if you had the right person in that role? So we'll close things up here with our last one leadership myth.

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Number five Vulnerability in leadership is weakness. Before I lose you, let me define what vulnerability is and how it can function appropriately and professionally in leadership to build trust, loyalty and, ultimately, good performance in your team. Brene Brown, a researcher known for her work on vulnerability, puts it this way vulnerability is not weakness, it's our greatest measure of courage. In leadership, it means showing our humanity, not to diminish authority, but to build credibility and connection. So what are some appropriate expressions of vulnerability? It's admitting you don't have all the answers. It's asking for help or input from your team. It's owning up to mistakes instead of covering them up. It's sharing challenges or concerns when appropriate, and it's being real about setbacks and what you've learned from them.

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When leaders practice vulnerability, trust increases. People feel safer to speak up and take risks when they see their leader doing the same. It also models authenticity. It sets a tone where transparency is valued over perfection. It also deepens connections. Teams become more cohesive when leaders are relatable, not unreachable, and innovation grows. Vulnerability creates space for experimentation, creativity and learning from failure. So ask yourself this question when is the last time I was vulnerable with my team? So there you have it. Those are five leadership myths that may be keeping you stuck. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I'll see you next time. Like what you heard on today's episode and want to go deeper, subscribe to this podcast so you never miss an episode. You can also pick up my book Lead Anyone on Amazon. Then go to my website to check out ways that we can support your leadership goals. From executive retreats to customized training and coaching, my team of experts will help you level up your leadership and accelerate your results. Go to wwweliseboggscom for more info.