Dear Leader,

Four years ago, I gave up being a leader.

I was tired of all the responsibilities that came from leading a team, having a mountain of work on my plate, and doing work that I’d lost passion for.

I wanted to pivot from HR to writing professionally (though I didn’t know what that would look like at the time). I figured if writing full-time didn’t work out that I could be an HR or compensation consultant or find some other way to make a living.

While I changed careers completely by pivoting to the UX Writing world by mid-2022, I can confidently say that writing content strings for user experiences doesn’t bring me the same joy writing posts and newsletters related to leadership, personal growth, and coaching does.

I’ve since reignited my passion for developing people, which led me to coaching and writing about leadership via this newsletter.

My mindset at the end of 2021 was the same mindset many leaders and executives are seeing today:

No one wants to be a leader anymore.

Several recent articles cite that younger employees no longer find it appealing to climb the corporate ladder. Despite the higher pay, many believe that the extra salary isn’t worth the stress of leading a team, taking on a large workload, and dealing with more potential for conflict.

Going along with this recent trend, I quit my management job partly because I’d lost sight of why I originally desired to become a leader in the first place.

I saw my leadership position as a trade-off between dollars and cents and high costs to my mental health and well-being.

But what I should’ve weighed when leaving my leadership role behind was impact.

I’d lost my “why” as a leader and had forgotten that one of the greatest rewards of being a leader is the positive impact you can have on others. This is what many younger employees don’t see when they pass up ‌leadership opportunities.

Let’s dive into why becoming a leader is worth it, despite the challenges.

Leadership gets a bad rap

Follow the news today, and you’ll see that leadership gets a bad rap.

​People cheered former UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder last December.

And as much as I love his progressive ideals, politicians like Bernie Sanders make it seem as if being an executive and earning high pay is a bad thing. While CEO compensation packages may be outlandish when compared to how much the average employee is being paid, that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t strive to be leaders.

What we’re actually seeing with this increased disgust for executives and leaders in society is an ever-widening gap in power between the upper echelons of society and the average person.

With inflation and insurance costs making life difficult for many, it's appalling to see CEO pay rise over 1000% since 1978. Meanwhile, the average worker has seen only a 24% increase in compensation in that same time period.

On top of the income inequality, the articles I linked to at the beginning of this letter clearly spell out the downsides of leadership.

People want to prioritize work-life balance and their own well-being at the expense of rapid career growth.

Several employees also want to become experts in their fields. They don’t want to motivate and lead other people.

And even though leaders usually get paid more when they advance into management, the higher compensation isn’t necessarily worth the added pressure and visibility of leadership for many people.

What if there were a way to maintain your well-being while becoming a stronger version of yourself and having a tremendous impact? What if actually embracing leadership was the key to this transformation?

What it means to be a leader

Leadership doesn’t mean micromanaging.

It’s not about controlling employees and telling people what to do.

And more importantly, it’s not about the money.

Instead, it’s about accepting the responsibility to move everyone forward in a better direction. It’s about encouraging, coaching, and guiding people to become better versions of themselves. This all starts when we do the important work of personal growth.

As leaders, we don’t have to burn ourselves out to achieve tremendous impact. We can embrace authority in a way that isn’t about command and control. By realizing we don’t have to be high achievers that do everything ourselves.

We can turn to our teams, understand what they’re good at, and align those strengths with the work that needs to be done. We can also develop the self-awareness to know when we’re at our limits, to push back, and to lead using our authentic voice.

This can be in a formal management position, but it doesn’t have to be.

When we accept the responsibility of leadership, we’re extending the impact we have on the world.

We’re saying yes to more meaning, more contribution, and more value.

If I hadn’t accepted my first promotion to Compensation Manager at a healthcare startup, I wouldn’t have created structured compensation programs that allowed the company to tie variable compensation with business goals. The company may not have reached IPO when it did and wouldn’t have opened more healthcare facilities that gave vulnerable seniors critical access to care.

That initial management opportunity led to another management position at a hyper-growth FinTech company. While there, I led compensation, benefits, and HRIS and developed systems that allowed the company to pay at the top of its’ industry, giving employees life-changing financial security. Beyond that, because of our great place to work, we consistently achieved near 5-star satisfaction ratings from customers.

These significant business results (and employee satisfaction) are things I can look back on proudly because I stepped up to lead. While I didn’t see it before, I see now how being a leader made a tremendous impact in the companies I worked for.

It’s why I’m even more motivated to coach emerging leaders and first-time managers on embracing their inner leader and saying “yes” to leadership when “no” is all-too tempting.

We need leaders to step up

Addressing the challenges of the world today requires bold and authentic leadership.

Instead of retreating from leadership, we need motivated and talented people to step up and lead to help solve these problems.

Climate change. Income inequality. Civil rights. Better and cheaper healthcare. All these areas need passionate leaders to drive them. Whether it’s for a startup, Fortune 500 company, political movement, or non-profit, we need more people to become leaders and usher in needed change in our world.

You can lead without burning out. You can take charge to fulfill your purpose. Not just cash a bigger paycheck.

You have more value than your expertise and growing yourself. Your impact can extend tenfold when you promote and grow others.

Instead of saying “no” to leadership, it’s time to say “yes,” even if it’s hard.

Wishing you the best on your leadership journey,

Spenser

P.S. I just created a brand-new self-coaching kit for emerging leaders and first-time managers. This kit offers powerful self-coaching questions about what you actually want and what’s in your way. You’ll find a guided visualization to support you and receive an invitation to a free coaching session to discuss your insights.

If you’re looking for more clarity in your leadership, I’d love for you to get the kit!