Meditations On Leadership
These are my thoughts on leadership related topics and ideas. It is meant to be a sort of journal for me and if you find it useful than I am happy to have helped.
Have you ever heard of the three legged stool analogy? It takes three legs for a stool to be stable, two legs is wobbly at best and one is just a joke. As a leader there are three main areas of focus. Three legs of the stool. Three balls that you have to juggle. Everything that you do will fit into one of these categories and a large part of your job is keeping them in balance. The three areas are; 1- The goal of your job, 2- Your followers, and 3- Those you report to. 1- The Goal of Your JobThis is what most people think of as the "job" but it is really only one part of what you do. This is what the company hired you for. To make widgets or sale gizmos, etc. You have to keep this ball in the air at all times. This one is pretty straight forward. 2- Your FollowersThe relationship with your followers is key if you are going to be a leader rather than just a manager or boss. People do what the boss says because he writes the checks and can fire you but you don't often go the extra mile for the boss or go out of your way to do something unless you know you are going to be rewarded somehow. A good leader works on their relationship with their followers and builds trust and understanding. This group includes your direct reports, employees, and anyone you do business with where you are the customer (Subcontractors etc.). This is anyone downstream in the flow of money or resources. Those you report ToYou have to balance the attention that you give to your followers and the energy you put into the "job" with the effort you put into the relationship that you have with those you report to. What if you are the top dog? Then the people you report to are your customers. This area includes customers, share holders, your boss, anyone higher up in the flow of money and resources. The challenge of a good leader is finding the balance between these three areas and constantly readjusting to keep them all in the air. You have to be able to build trust and understanding with your subordinates and still be able to ask them to do the hard things, even let them go if that is what is right. You have to be able to take direction and feedback from those you report to but also know when to push back and offer correction for the sake of the goal. You have to do the "job" but if you do it at the expense of the other two, or even just one of the other two, you won't maintain success in the long term. You have to constantly check these three areas and reprioritize your efforts to keep them all in balance.
I recommend a weekly evaluation of these three areas. Focus on those closest to you but regularly check on those further up or downstream from you. Keeping good records is key, email makes this really easy. If you create a folder for each person you need to maintain a relationship with and you use email to communicate with each of them you can easily keep an up to date record of what you have done to work on each relationship. That way you can see where you might need to focus more. But don't feel pigeon holed into using my ideas. If you have something else that works better for you, use that. If you want to learn more about this juggling act an excellent book to read is The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. They dive deeper into this balancing act as well as many more dichotomies that a leader faces.
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AuthorJ. LaVarr Roberts Archives
April 2021
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