Incomplete thoughts on leadership
Management is doing things right
Leadership is doing the right things.
The managers are…sharpening their machetes, writing policy and procedure manuals, holding muscle development programs, bringing in improved technologies and setting up working schedules and compensation programs for machete wielders.
The leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, “Wrong jungle!”
– Stephen Covey (full parable)
A leader can steer teams at the important problems.
One part of a leader’s role is to help organisations solve their most important problems.
A leader can’t solve all of the hardest problems. Instead they can provide scaffolding to bring the problem to the team’s capabilities, solving the problem of solving the problem, or meta-problem solving. There is huge leverage here.
Being led requires risk & sacrifice. Giving away agency requires a return.
Not a transaction: Leadership requires bilateral, long-term trust.
A bargain: If I let you lead, you will take me where I couldn’t have gotten alone.
I will serve your agenda, and you will serve my interests.
Simon Sinek: “Leaders Eat Last”.
Some leaders forget this. They focus on authority. Do what I say because I have hierarchical power. This is not real or lasting power. It is ineffective because nobody is bought in to it.
A leader can make the system better, and the people in the system better.
Managers might focus on Productivity. Box ticking. Performance evaluations.
Leaders can offer new perspectives. Shedding new light on old problems. Ways of thinking and models for behaving.
“Feedback” is what you have to write in a box at the end of the year.
Improvement is continuous. We improve by doing more of what works, less of what doesn’t, and by finding better ways.
Improvement requires change. To improve you must be a) willing to change & b) willing to hear how you should change.
Most leaders say they value feedback, and yet demonstrate neither of these attributes.
To get good “feedback” it is critical that everybody genuinely believes that helping you improve is in their best interests.
Start by critiquing yourself publicly: Show that you are willing to bare your flaws.
Reward thoughtful, timely suggestions.
Thoughtful means more than “XYZ isn’t good”. They’ve understood the challenge.
Timely is important: See Tight feedback loops.