Over the past three years I’ve led teams of all shapes and sizes, and have fallen in love with the art of leadership.
Here are 5 pillars that I’ll carry with me forever:
- It’s not a leader’s job to always give all the answers. Sometimes the best thing a leader can do is allow their people to fail and be there to support and educate when they do.
- It’s a leader’s job to not only define the vision, but to get their people behind it. How? Leaders need to understand the individual goals of their people, and intertwine the collective goal with the individual ones. When there’s growth as a team, everyone needs to feel they are growing as individuals too.
- Every single person has something unique to offer. Everyone. Leaders shouldn’t structure systems that cram people into boxes that suit only one set of skills, they should create a framework that allows each person’s unique abilities to be amplified while still moving towards the same end goal.
- As a leader, you work for your team. A commonality amongst leaders I’ve seen struggle to create buy-in and respect from their teams is the perspective that THEY work for ME. This is true in one sense, but it’s a harmful perspective to have. Your job as a leader is to reduce the friction to your team enjoying their work and doing it to the best of their abilities.
- I’ve yet to be a part of an organization where a constant fear of fucking up resulted in stronger outcomes. Don’t get me wrong, leaders need to ensure there’s accountability, but creating an ecosystem where their team sees value in creating personal accountability will have much more impact than a flawless punishment system.