The ‘Being’ of Leadership or… how to stop working so hard.

 A conversation that I have almost daily with leaders is about how they can stop working so hard.

What transpires often, is that these leaders haven’t stepped fully into their leadership role - they are often ‘managing’ rather than leading, focusing on the urgent and important tasks and having no time for the important leader’s work.

Many find it almost impossible to move from the ‘doing’ of managing teams to the ‘being’ of leading teams. It’s really hard to give up the ‘doing’ to stop delivering against task because ‘being relied upon to deliver got me to where I am now.’

The reason that managers can’t give up the ‘doing’ is because they don't yet have demonstrable capabilities in leadership. It feels too risky to stop doing that which we find comfortable and step into unknown territory.

A helpful structure to think about leadership comes from Heifetz and the practices of Adaptive Leadership. One of the tactics recommended is for leaders to adopt a more meta view of their organisational challenges. A meta view described as ‘getting on the balcony’: when we remove ourselves from the ‘dance floor’ of micro-managing teams we can begin to see patterns emerge. Responses to challenge become more strategic as we take the opportunity to view the whole system from above rather than just the pieces directly in front of us.

To make the age-old move from management to leadership, we are required to let go of those things that make us feel safe, needed, useful and known. To begin to be known for the results of others, those others that we have empowered by stepping back.

Of course, we have to also develop the capacity to accept failure in others, allowing some calculated risk and providing fire cover to support.

Leaders, as they start to think strategically and longer term will also need to gather support and manage expectations up and down. ‘I’m trying this new way of leading … am interested in your feedback ….’ Knowing that they can review and adjust where necessary.

It takes humility to accept that others can be better than you – embrace and encourage their ideas, knowledge and expertise. The role of a leader is to coach the best from them.

The real skill is in adjusting our mindset to accept that others have the answers and our role is to create an environment that brings the knowledge to the table.