Many of us keep climbing that corporate ladder because we think that once we get to the top, all things will simply bend around us. We will become the most important thing. We will be king of the mountain. We will get that prime parking place. In fact, the proper orientation of the ladder is downward. Like the game chutes and ladders, but in reverse. Every promotion means we should climb down. Why? We get low because that’s where humility resides. We get low so we can get under our people to help support them. We get low so we can get closer to the core of our business. And we give our close-in parking place to the person on our team that could really use it.
With your teams, don’t get out of the way, do this instead
"Get out of the way!" I often hear some version of this sentiment when talking about building a culture to incentivize high performance teams. "You have to find the right people, equip them, and then get out of the way." People who talk about getting out of the way...