Leadership Is a Practice
This week is school vacation week in Rhode Island, and our family is headed on a magical adventure to Disney World.
As we pack our bags with Rapunzel-themed clothing, strategize our itinerary, and update the countdown on our fridge, we keep using a phrase that we say a lot in our house:
It's all practice for the Haunted Mansion.
The backstory
A few years ago, I took my oldest daughter on her first big trip: we flew across the country in her very first airplane to go to Disneyland. We were hyped up about the destination, planning for months, and talking up all the rides we would go on.
Avery was especially fixated on getting to finally experience Disney's Haunted Mansion. So imagine her disappointment when we arrived at the airport, got to our gate, and had to wait for two hours!
Then there was the long plane ride. And when we arrived, we still had two days of exploring Los Angeles before we headed to Disneyland.
During all this time, we developed a motto: It’s all practice for the Haunted Mansion.
Waiting for the food to arrive at our table? Practice for the Haunted Mansion.
Finding our way around a busy shopping center? Practice for the Haunted Mansion.
Feeling nervous about the ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier? Practice for the Haunted Mansion.
Any setback or challenge we encountered turned from an inconvenience to an opportunity: helping us prepare to experience the Haunted Mansion.
See, even when we got to Disneyland, we were waiting, navigating, deciding—in line to check into the hotel, making our way through the park, planning the optimal time to get in line for the ride itself. By the time we got there, we were really good at all of it because we had so much practice along the way.
Seeing leadership as a practice, not a destination
I’m a major fan of the word “practice.” I’ve even considered getting it tattooed on my arm.
Because that’s what everything in life is, really: practice.
In our leadership journeys, we often focus on the destination that we’re aiming for: that role we’ve set our sights on, the moment when we step into leadership by managing direct reports or are heading up a big project, or celebrating a specific achievement that we think will give us the sense that we’ve finally “arrived.”
But leadership is not something that suddenly kicks in when you reach a destination. It’s a practice that happens all along the way.
In small and large ways, you’ve been practicing leadership for the whole of your life—from the time you were the line leader in preschool to your first time navigating an airport to speaking up in a meeting at work today.
There are some common ways that we use the word "practice:" one can have a yoga practice or a meditation practice. That implies that there is no final destination to reach; instead, it’s about always learning new things on the journey.
Leadership is not a destination—it’s a practice. The opportunities to learn, grow, and adapt are never-ending.
There's bad news and good news
Seeing leadership as a practice means (and this is perhaps frustrating) that you’ll never arrive. You’ll never feel like you can check the box that signifies that you've got it all figured out and you’re all set.
But it also means (and this is perhaps freeing) that no matter the mistakes you make along the way, there are always more opportunities to develop your practice.
Contrary to the old saying that “Practice makes perfect,” practice doesn’t lead to perfection. Practice makes learning. Practice makes life. Practice makes leadership.
Really, all of it is just practice for the Haunted Mansion.
I challenge you today to zoom out from the focus on your destination and instead recognize all the practice that you've been putting in, day to day.
See all of the richness of where you are in the journey right now.
Acknowledge that you're not just waiting to arrive—you're engaged in the practice now.
