Naïve.  That was me. When I was an entry level salesman, I looked at my boss and believed his job had all the perks.  He was paid more, was in control and got to travel to great cities for meetings.  Being a leader had to be better than being where I was.

A lot of people believe life gets easier as you climb the corporate ladder.  Those people probably have not started the climb yet.  They don’t realize, just like I didn’t realize, that once you become a leader, you give up a lot of rights you had before.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love leading people.  But, when I speak to leaders who attend my conferences they all agree.  You give up a lot of your rights when you lead.

Responsibility means few rights.

What We Give Up To Lead

When I talk about rights, I am not talking about rights that are biblical or on the level of the U. S.  Constitution.  When I refer to rights, I am talking about privileges leaders give up that they might have taken for granted before they were leaders.

I may have acted like these things were my rights to have or my rights to do.  But once I got promoted, I realized that good leaders no longer have those rights.

Here is a partial list of a leader’s lost rights:

1.  The Right To My Own Performance

Once I am the leader of a team, I am ultimately judged by that team’s performance.  If others do not do their job, it now reflects on me.

I am no longer judged by my actions but the actions of other flawed humans.  This realization hit not long after taking leadership.  I have to coach good performance out of others versus just focusing on myself.

This can be one of the most frustrating and the most rewarding aspects of leadership.  But the truth is I am no longer judged as an individual.

2.  The Right To My Time

The only people who had influence over my time as a salesperson were my customers and my boss.  That all changed when I was promoted.

Ten sales people had influence on my time.  Every one of their customers could impact my calendar if they were unhappy.  My boss could call a meeting or a conference call.  So could her boss and that boss’s boss.

The control of time I thought I was lacking as an individual looked like heaven once I became a leader.  With added responsibility came an exponential loss of control of  my time.  My time was rarely my own.

3.  The Right To My Old Friends

Getting promoted was great and my friends were happy for me.  But, I soon realized I had to give up some of them.   None of them worked directly for me, but a new line needed to be drawn.

The people I used to have a beer with and laugh with needed to change.  I missed them.  But the perceptions of bias and favoritism could damage my credibility even if those people were not on my team.

4.  The Right To Complain

Just like a lot of people, when I didn’t like a decision by upper management, I would take advantage of my right to complain about it.  In one on one conversations or with groups of peers complaining was and overused pastime.

As a leader, I now had to support those decisions and implement them.   I did not have the right to sit around and moan.  I had to find a way to make the idea work at my level and motivate my team.

(A moral/ethical failure is something no one should support and I did not.  But truly moral and ethical differences were rare.  It was usually strategy or policy issues that caused the complaints.)

5.  The Right To Defend Myself

When I became a leader, I lost the right to defend myself to others.  If I had to coach or fire an individual, what they said about me could be harsh and often false.  But, I could not defend myself.

Whatever coaching happened between us was private.  If they chose to discuss it, that was their right.  But it was not my right as a leader to discuss someone else’s performance with anyone but with them and my boss. 

Therefore, they could say anything about me as they left the company.  It would sting if someone believed them.  But, it did not give me the right to respond or defend myself in the court of public opinion.  I gave up that right when I became a leader.

The Bottom Line:

Leadership looks a lot easier from the outside.  If you have ever been put in charge of people at work, as volunteers or at church, you know that it is not an easy job.

Being in charge and leading others requires good leaders to give up some of their rights.  Few people gain more rights once they enter leadership.  They almost always give them up.

I gave up some rights to lead and I am glad I did.  The joy and the fulfillment of leading teams and helping others succeed was better than any right I ever gave up to lead. 

It is easy to critique leaders from the outside.  But, be careful. What looks easy may surprise you.  You give up a lot to lead.  The question is what personal rights are you willing to give up to be a good leader?

Question:

What other rights or privileges do leaders give up?