I fundamentally believe the role of the leader is rapidly changing. Today’s leader and the future leader will be, in essence, two very different people. The reason they will be different people is because they will be solving different problems. Think of it in a parenting sense. In one season, you are parenting small children who have a particular set of needs. I remember when my kids were just babies (because it feels like yesterday!) and they took two naps a day. Heaven help us if one of those naps was missed! Now, they are older. And how I parent them has changed. They no longer need the naps, but they need other things. Our workplace can be seen through a similar lens. In one season it was one way, now it is changing. The drivers of the change are rapidly advancing technology and generational turnover. Amid all of this change, many of us have a death grip on “how we do things ’round here.” What we are doing–our leadership behavior–might feel good, but it isn’t as effective as it could be. If we want to attract the best, we must be the kind of leader the best want to be around. So, the question is: What should we do? (this post is part 1)
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...