Welcome to Your Leadership Lab

Welcome, come on in!

You get a front row seat to all of the wonderful and interesting experiments on the daily!

You won’t agree with all of the methodology, instruments, or heck – even some of the ethics – but this is where the REAL learning begins. You get to see, first-hand, how people leading people is done. You’ll have some reactions, of course, but that is expected! This is how we measure your pain tolerance and your level of trust. You’ll also see what excites you. What motivates you. It’s all here!

So grab a notebook, your favorite caffeinated beverage, and your sense of humor because these new protocols will blow your mind!

We should start every job with this welcome message, right?

We go to work assuming (incorrectly) that the behavior that seems reasonable to us will ALSO seem reasonable to everyone else. We believe that the structures in place have safeguards against what WE deem unnecessary, and sometimes, what WE consider outright wrong. We hope that someONE, someWHERE, someHOW – will say someTHING. And it’s not until we have the realization that we’re actually in our own leadership lab that things start to shift. We’re not outside of the room, peering in through the glass. We’re on an uncomfortable lab stool with no back with our feet tucked on the little ledge below us. We’ve got our pens and notebooks waiting impatiently for the smoke to clear from failed experiments so we can write down our observations. Then we may have the courage to be that person we’re looking for.

So here’s how to make the most of your leadership lab experience:

• Write down your thoughts regularly – start today.

• When you’re in a dismal meeting, write down the thing that was said that seemed to perk everyone up.

• When you have to face a difficult conversation that was no fault of your own, write down where the cracks in the foundation were.

• When you are feeling so freaking sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, write down what you really wish to be well and alert enough for.

• When you just cannot believe that this highly regarded person said that thing to you that made you so mad and sad, write down where you are…

You are in your Leadership Lab. You are having a much different experience from the person on the uncomfortable lab stool to your left. You are making your OWN observations about the experiments. You cannot rely on anyone else’s notes for this one. And after some time, you will review your lab notes and start to see themes. (Just like research!) You may notice that someone’s name keeps coming up – either positively or negatively. You may realize what types of events send you into defensive mode. You may conclude that all of the stuff really isn’t personal to you at all but is shaping you to be the amazing person that you are today and your ideas and thoughts matter so overall you’re really thankful for the leadership lab experiments even though they were really tough at the time (that’s high level stuff, though – takes a while to get there).

Some people say that one event or one person changed the way they lead. For most of us, we lead the way we do because of the experiments we observed in our own labs. I wish you strong study design with large sample sizes and unbiased investigators. Some of you won’t be so lucky. Either way, your lab notes will serve you and your future teams well.

Tell us about a memorable experiment from your lab in the comments below!

Until next week,