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People aren\u2019t born into leadership positions. We usually start in the trenches, as the doers. The bricklayers. The people touching all the parts, from the inside out. We earn the right to lead the projects and the vision by doing the work itself, and doing it well. But therein usually lies the rub.<\/p>\n
Because the hardest part of learning to lead well is letting go of the execution, the very thing that earned us our spot at the head of the team, and entrusting others with the building and construction.<\/p>\n
The old saying of \u201cif you want something done right, do it yourself\u201d just doesn\u2019t play at scale. That\u2019s not how great ideas come to fruition, and it\u2019s not how great businesses are built.<\/p>\n
As I\u2019ve learned to lead rather than do (and that\u2019s a constant process), a few key concepts have helped me a great deal to stay on track, and perhaps they\u2019ll help you too, or someone you know emerging into a leadership role.<\/p>\n
Navigation<\/strong>:<\/p>\n * Build consensus around shared goals and direction. Advocacy<\/strong>:<\/p>\n * Champion and enable others\u2019 ideas instead of always handing others ideas to execute. Perspective<\/strong>:<\/p>\n * Provide context, history, and organizational intelligence to empower your teams with information upon which to build their plans. Trust<\/strong>:<\/p>\n * Provide direct lines of communication with each team member, and be available. Learning to be a leader can be challenging when you\u2019ve built a career on doing the work. Old habits die hard. It\u2019s sometimes hard to believe that anyone can do what you do and do it as well, or better. But if you\u2019ve got designs on building something bigger than you, you\u2019re going to need to build and empower a team around you. It\u2019s just not possible to do it alone.<\/p>\n So what would you add to my list? How would you help new and emerging leaders get comfortable with their roles? I\u2019m looking forward to your comments. Fire away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" People aren\u2019t born into leadership positions. We usually start in the trenches, as the doers. The bricklayers. The people touching all the parts, from the inside out. We earn the right to lead the projects and the vision by doing the work itself, and doing it well. But therein usually lies the rub. Because the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,55],"tags":[101,99,97,100,102,103],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-ambernaslund","tag-advocacy","tag-growth","tag-leadership","tag-navigation","tag-perspective","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":585,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions\/585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n * Present the what \u2013 the shared vision or goals \u2013 but not necessarily the how.
\n * Communicate expectations clearly and often.
\n * Avoid dictating the plans yourself, but rather help refine the roadmaps that others have built and presented.<\/p>\n
\n * Allow your teams sometimes to fail in their search for the approach that works, and to help them find the lessons in those failures.
\n * Protect nascent ideas and allow them time to incubate without immediate interference from bureaucracy and naysayers.
\n * Encourage respectful discourse and sharing of opinions and viewpoints, including opposing ones.
\n * Recognize success openly, sincerely, and often.<\/p>\n
\n * Look past today\u2019s projects to envision what tomorrow might look like and how you can guide toward it.
\n * Present alternative views or looks at stubborn problems.
\n * Consistently evaluate team dynamics and capabilities, and make the tough people decisions to ensure you\u2019ve got the right people in the right roles.<\/p>\n
\n * Keep confidences, period.
\n * Hire capable, smart people, and be willing to get out of their way.
\n * Be responsible and accountable for your decisions and their results, and avoid scapegoating and blame.
\n * Share the credit, and the spotlight.<\/p>\n