Do you ever wonder why some leaders seem to spend the same amount of time planning the benefit for the humane society and running the soccer league as they do working in the office? And its always the best leaders too, right? Those high achieving leaders who are getting promotions and awards are also the ones who always seem to have time to play tennis, get their nails done, and show up in random pictures of a meeting at city hall. How are they managing to do it all? Well today we’re digging in to find out what makes the high achieving leaders brains different from those who only see daylight from the window when they run to the bathroom. And how you can get amazing results at work and an even more amazing life outside of it. See this transformation come to life on YouTube.
Consider everything you’re doing
How did the last project you led go? If you’re anything like the people I talk to, your mental check list probably went something like this:
- Explain its really important we get this right to the team.
- Give a detailed list of everything that needs to be done to the team.
- Set up meetings to ensure progress.
- Check in on progress yourself before the meeting check in so you’re prepared.
- Monitor details to keep things running smoothly.
- Edit reports and results presentations to create perfect responses.
- Prepare your boss to share this with senior leadership.
- Encourage your team to keep working hard.
- Celebrate the work is done as a ‘team effort’. (which almost becomes a new project itself)
Then, silently resent that you seem more exhausted than any team member. But hey, that’s why they pay you the big bucks right?
Your focus follows your actions
Did that sound familiar? That is what 95% of managers and supervisors do to ‘lead’ a project. However, it’s almost all management of tasks. With no time left to actually lead the people on the team. You’re spending so much time on each of the tasks, touching each and every detail, that even with a team it feels like you’re doing all the work yourself. Remember, leadership is guiding someone along the way. Meaning you have others with you who are advancing the tasks based on your leadership. They need you to be out ahead of them guiding where they need to go.
Think of it this way, you’re at the beach making a sand castle. You have a big beautiful castle and you decide you want a mote around it. So, you dig the trench all the way around and pour a pail of water into it. The water will slosh into it and eventually soak in. Then, you’ll run back to refill your bucket and pour it in the mote. You’ll run back and forth 100 times, be completely out of breath, and yet, you’ll just have damp sand filling your mote. It is when you transition your abilities from doing to leading that you actually see progress. If you really want to see this illustration come to life you need to be on YouTube.
Stop managing tasks and start leading people
Managing tasks looks like staying on top of that giant to do list. It looks like working the project plan and asking for constant updates from everyone involved and then editing everything they worked on. Remember though, that same task manager energy is what has your water seeping right out of your mote. Tasks are only the small picture, outcome is the goal. Leading people refocuses you on that outcome and allows them to manage their own work. Which means the experts are focused on their area of expertise.
The sandcastle suddenly has a big beautiful protective mote flowing all the way around because everyone did the work they were the best equipped to do. One person dug the mote down deep to get rid of all that dry wasted sand that is soaking up the water. Another person lined the bottom with pebbles to slow the water from flowing out. Two people got pails of water to pour in at the same time to fill it up faster. But you, you were the most critical of all because you led the charge.
Not by finding a shovel to add just a little more water; or micro managing and getting in the way of the best digger. You assigned the work to the most capable person. Then you challenged them to think more creatively and move faster than they thought they could. You encouraged them to see how impressive their mote actually was and how it would keep the waves from washing over the amazing castle you all built.
So I’ll be more effective when I stop managing?
When you lead your team, you see a more successful outcome than they ever expected. And you do it without ever touching the sand. It’s when you see the pride and joy on their faces that you realize it had nothing to do with getting your hands dirty. Trying to get your hands dirty is just to make you feel better. It makes you feel like you did real work. You made the edits. You sent the emails. It’s all about you feeling like you made a difference. When you stop focusing on what you do and instead on how to get the best outcome, regardless of if it is a stunning castle protected by the perfect mote or a flawlessly executed software update promoted by a curated communication plan, that is when you start leading for others. Its that focus on the outcome, the result, that makes you the leader people want to work with and work really hard for.
That is how those high performing leaders accomplish so much. They take on that first wave, click here to see what I mean, guiding the way for each wave after them. That energy going into what they do best re-energizes them and frees up their time to bring their next wave of service to another area of life. Now, they bring that same wave of service, wave of energy to lead in every opportunity they get. They aren’t managing every task. They don’t even try to because they know it won’t serve them or the people they are working for. You can have that same impact while maintaining your energy when you confidently lead toward the outcome too.