Distilling Good Leadership Down to its Spirit.
When I left academia and entered the business world, I thought that I would need to accept every project I was given. I thought that doing this would ensure that I stayed employed and moved up in the company — whatever company it was. Almost 7 years later, I have realized that this is a mistake — but hey, at least it’s a fairly common one.
I am now a team leader. I manage a small team of 6 people, and have strategic goals that I am responsible for achieving. Because of this, I have realized that as a leader, there is something that I need to have at the front of my mind as I delegate to my team:
time and attention — the two most valuable resources in knowledge work — are finite, and must be managed accordingly.
I need to make sure that I know this about the people I lead, but I also need to make sure that those who lead me know it as well. It means that I need to pay keen attention to how each of my people work — how long they can stay in deep focus, how much walking around they need to do in order to get back to square, and so on. This is harder, of course with remote direct reports, but it can be done. It needs to be done, or else the true job of a leader is incomplete.
I have realized that a true leader has one job: to find out what her people need in order to fully realize their potential, and do all she can to make sure they get it.
Everything should flow from that principle. This includes making sure that people’s time and attention are being effectively used, but not overextended. Some of the best people you could work with will not tell you when they are being overworked until it is too late. You need to position yourself to be tuned in to sense that, and act accordingly.
But it’s about more than just making sure that your team is not overextended, it’s also about making sure that your team has space to think creatively and think strategically. This means making sure their mix of work is not sabotaging their development.
For about a year and a half, I had been promoted to a managerial role, given strategic projects, and expected to lead. But I was also saddled with day to day customer service tasks as well — the same ones my direct reports had. The rhythm of my days ended up being one driven by urgent e-mails and calls, tasks needing to be done by the same day, and reminders about strategic work I needed to be doing. It meant that most of the work I was doing was essentially handling interruptions. As many are familiar with now, there are significant costs associated with this — having to switch from so much tactical work back to strategic work. One kind of work ends up suffering, and it is usually the strategic work. It kept the pace of my development slower than it would have otherwise been.
That is the price that leaders can pay if they don’t keep in mind their people’s mix of work. You can lose people who could bring strategic value, because you’re keeping them on tactical work. Some of the most promising people working under you will not complain until it’s too late — they’re either burned out, or they’ve begun looking elsewhere. You’ve lost them either way, and it’s a bad loss to endure — very difficult to come back from.
All of this is to say that leadership should be about the people you lead first and foremost. When it is truly about them, it will have to be about developing them to their fullest potential. That means making sure that you make the most of the finite time and attention they have.
It’s difficult, sometimes murky work, but it’s some of the most rewarding work that one can do.