What is leadership, really? From my experience, itâs two things: Articulating a clear direction and then managing the execution to get there. Leaders might focus more on one vs the other (e.g., Steve Jobs vs Tim Cook) but both are critical.
I draw the line between what is in and out of control. The execution, what I or my team are doing, is fully under our control. Where that takes us, however, is partly affected by us, but also largely affected by all kinds of outside factors.
One big cause of stress is when we confuse the two: When we try to manage execution on directional targets not fully in our control, for example revenue numbers that depend partly on our efforts but even more on the quirks of the world economy.
Super excited about this conversation with Ruben Timmerman on leadership. He sees himself as a âleadership nerdâ - having been the first one in the Netherlands to roll out Holacracy at his startup, acting as operational lead for Volt Europe, co-founding the School for Moral Ambition, and most recently starting moralfabric.org - ops as a service for NGOs. In our conversation we keep coming back to the importance of being explicit, focusing on the why, and continuously evolving systems. As always, this conversation is meant as a conversation on this topic, independent of this post.
How to lead
Lead yourself
Most people who are stressed have either unrealistic expectations of their productivity or targets that arenât fully in their control. Get around both by learning whatâs realistic and only setting expectations based on work time, not outcomes.
Set direction: Every year, quarter, month, week, day, at an adequate level of detail, ask yourself the question: What is the most important thing to focus on / direction to go in to create the greatest value, based on the higher-level direction?
Execute: Spend your time on moving into this direction. A good day is a day where you were able to spend a lot of time on your direction. Track your time to get a feeling for how much is realistic to expect from yourself.
Reflect: In regular intervals, check in if your execution gets you far enough. Do you need to change your way of working, learn a new skill, outsource? Or is the direction not achievable and you need to change path altogether?
Lead your team
The same stress-fallacy applies to managing teams. When you try managing on targets, you are either burning them out (too high targets) or underutilizing them (too low targets). Instead of finding the perfect target, manage on motivation and time.
Set direction: Use the same cadence idea but now itâs for your goals and your teamâs goals. Your job is to understand their motivations, find the intersection of both, and make sure both of you are fully aligned on the final one.
Execute: Set clear expectations for time spent or deliverables and communicate clearly and early when itâs above or below the bar. Adjust the granularity based on results: Start more micro-managy in the beginning and open as trust builds.
Reflect: In regular retrospectives, 1:1s or offsites check in if the results get your far enough in the set directions and adjust as needed. I think retrospectives are the most underappreciated meeting. Itâs the place to âfix the bugsâ.
Lead your manager
Your boss is busy and a good employee for them is one that needs little time and generates lots of impact. Do the work for them, and manage yourself as much as possible.
Set direction: Proactively suggest the direction for you to go in to maximize both the companyâs impact and your personal goals (promotion, impact, time with your children, holidays, whatever they are). Get explicit agreement.
Execute: Manage your own time proactively: When more demand comes in, flag to your boss that something else has to go and make a suggestion for what that thing will be.
Reflect: Flag early when you canât meet goals. Predictability is often much more important than achievement because it allows a change of direction while it can still be changed.
Three things to start building leadership skills
Block time to reflect: Whatâs realistic to expect of you/your team?
Track your time. Itâs your most important resource at work.
Build a habit to set weekly goals.