First a quote: “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.” — Max De Pree
Transitioning into a leadership role often requires a significant, and sometimes difficult, change in our mental models. One might almost call it a mental transformation. How we think about others, ourselves, and our roles and responsibilities must change, or at least, in my opinion, should.
Early in our careers, we are often recognized, rewarded, and sometimes even promoted because of our personal skill sets and individual abilities to “get stuff done,” to make things happen, and deliver results.
In many ways, we become what I have described as “super-doers.” We’re often rewarded for being hard workers; we are recognized for our individual efforts and accomplishments.
Most organizations love super-doers! Who doesn’t appreciate hard-working people who consistently deliver results day after day, month after month? Don’t get me wrong, organizations need people who deliver results. This will never change. And please know I am not advocating for less focus on delivering results. Results will always be important. This missive is about how we achieve results.
What I am suggesting however, is that the methodology through which we get those results needs to change if our career goals include taking on leadership responsibilities. At some point, those same “super-doer” qualities that served us well early in our careers, may become a liability, or even a “glass ceiling” of sorts, later in our careers.
Transitioning into leadership from more tactical roles and responsibilities requires a conscientious and deliberate shift in mindset, focus, and priorities in many important areas. How leaders spend their time, and what gets their attention, must change. For many of us, me included, this can be a difficult transition.
Following are several key mental transitions leaders should consider:
- Results matter, not just today, but in the future as well. Leaders must deliver results today, AND simultaneously prepare their department, function, or business for the future. While leaders must obviously address today’s challenges and deliver results in the present, they must also be future focused.
Setting aside time to proactively look further down the path, anticipating future needs, problems, challenges, and opportunities. This requires the discipline to think more strategically, proactively, and be less reactionary than earlier in your career. Your focus should increasingly be on “strategic fire prevention,” not reactive day-to-day “firefighting.”
Click here to read: Prioritizing Your Schedule Isn’t Enough
Click here to read: Time Management is Not the Problem
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Team performance matters more! As a person transitions from an individual contributor role to one involving higher levels of leadership, the measurement of their performance changes too. Effective leaders build effective, high-performing teams. While individual performance is always important, it is the performance of a leader’s team that is the higher priority.
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Structure, systems, and processes are the responsibility of leadership! Leaders must be more focused on the continual improvement of organizational structures, systems, and processes. When we ask talented, hardworking, motivated people to work with tools, systems, and processes that are less than ideal, perhaps even antiquated, we get mediocre results at best.
It has been my observation that our employees and teams are frequently blamed for poor organizational results.
When managers blame their people for poor performance, it relieves those managers of their own personal responsibility for repairing, and/or replacing, dysfunctional systems and processes.
What processes need to be updated in your area of responsibility? Have you asked your team what is getting in their way of producing better results?
- Culture matters! Leaders must now pay attention to, and shape, the culture of their department, function, or business. Someone once said, “Organizational culture eats strategy for breakfast” (frequently attributed to Peter Drucker but has never been confirmed).
The point: it doesn’t matter how grand your strategy, if your organizational culture doesn’t support it, or even worse yet, fights that grand strategy. Often, organizational culture is the reason many change efforts fail or fall short of expectations.
Click here to read: Culture Matters
- People Matter! When a person becomes more concerned about the well-being of others, over their own personal needs, you know they have what it takes to be a leader. Leaders know they have performed their job well if the department, function, or organization is positioned for success long after their departure.
Effective leaders value servant leadership as a mental model. Their role is to serve others, to remove barriers, to provide resources and champion the success of others. I was fortunate to begin my career with a company where managers were taught this concept; they called it the “First Assistant” philosophy. Jack Welch said it this way:
“Before you become a leader, success is about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
Click here to read: Congratulations, You’re the Boss; Who Serves Who?
Click here to read: Grow Your people, Grow Your Business
Being a “super-doer” can be a very good thing and serves most of us well early in our careers. However, if we don’t make the required mental shifts that come with leadership responsibilities, that same “super-doer” quality will likely become a glass ceiling. Getting results will always be important, getting results with, and through, others is a critical function of leadership.
How will you live, love, or lead, differently, or better, this coming week?
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Sincerely,
Bryan Yager
“Expanding Your Capacity for Success”
Bonus Quotes:
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“When you were made a leader, you weren’t given a crown, you were given the responsibility to bring out the best in others!” —Jack Welch
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“I don’t want my life to be defined by what is etched on a tombstone. I want it to be defined by what is etched in the lives and hearts of those I’ve touched.” ― Steve Maraboli
