Here’s an opinion: Your ability to lead and influence people has f*ck all to do with your title, and everything to do with how you treat people.
Just because you have the big title and the corner office doesn’t mean you automatically have what it takes to effectively influence your employees.
Yes, you can tell them what to do. “Boss” them around. But if that’s not backed up with a personality that people can respect, behaviors that your employees find supportive, and some credibility in your capacity to execute the role, then you’ll get compliance, not commitment.
One of the most common mistakes I see with senior leaders is that they don’t realize that their job is no longer to run the company. That’s the role of everyone else. If you are in leadership, then your job is to develop the people who run the company. Grow them, cultivate their talents, and support them day in and out.
I’m not suggesting that you should spend all your time one-on-one with your team, but I am suggesting that more of your time should be spent thinking about how to grow the people working for you so they get increasingly more capable every day.
It’s easy to forget that being a leader is an actual job and not just a title. It means you have to shift your priorities and the way you work.
Clearly, leadership skills are often very different from the skillsets needed to perform well in the role you had before. Previously, you may have spent all your time writing code, designing magazine layouts, producing commercials, or jamming in spreadsheets.
But as a leader, you are setting direction, developing people, clearing obstacles, and creating the conditions for your people to do their best work.
It’s a different job and in order to do this new job you have to let go of the old job, even if you feel like you’re better at it than the people you’re leading.
If you’re curious whether or not you’re fulfilling your leadership potential, spend a little time auditing yourself. Sit down with your calendar and look at the last 2 months. Go through day by day and see how you spent your time.
- What were you doing (specifically)?
- Who were you doing it with?
- What were you doing it for?
- Could someone else have been doing that task?
- What was your behavior like?
- Do you like how you showed up with your colleagues?
- Did you grow your people or did you stifle their growth?
- Would you want to work for you?
Answer some of these questions (and maybe a few more of your own). The whole process should take less than 90 minutes. Be brutally honest with yourself and see how you did. Then, make a list of 1-3 things you’re going to do differently for the next 90 days.