Leaders have 3 primary responsibilities:
- Thinking
- Deciding
- Communicating
Typically, early career assignments are completed by you executing work, or working with a small team to execute work. You naturally spend considerable time focused on How that work gets done.
The more senior you become in an organization, you must shift gears and think less about the specifics of How something is accomplished, and think more about Who should do that work:
There is a practical limit for how much you can accomplish as an individual; there is no limit on what you can accomplish with others and through others, building on what others have created in generations before you.
Make it your ambition to follow this pattern:
- Think hard.
- Decide what is needed, and what you want the future to look like.
- Decide on the Who will take that forward.
- Assign/delegate the How to that person.
(Note: Communication remains critically important, but the content and scope of communication will be different.)
You’ll increase your leadership capability when you invest time up and out of the How, providing oversight and guidance to the Who.
