What We Heard

Working with companies all over the country, common themes include people management. Being good at the functions of your “work” doesn’t mean you know how to manage the people you lead. Learning to pass on or share leadership becomes essential. Leadership isn’t passed in strategy if it’s not cultivated in a relationship. There is no substitute for simply spending time with people modeling the leadership you desire to pass. This is true in business and even more so at home. It’s life on life contact that transfers leadership.   What It Means: The tactical mechanism for passing leadership is delegation. First, slow down enough to show someone what you’re doing. If you don’t slow down and invest time, you’ll never be free of the task. Next, mind your own insecurity. The feeling among leaders is that holding leadership tight keeps one necessary. Letting go invites the fear of losing personal value. Be mindful: You don’t lead people best the way you want to be lead. You lead people best the way that they need to be lead. Leadership means speaking in the language others understand even when it’s not the dialect most comfortable to us.  

What We Do Next

Delegation is first a decision. Choose the who, what, and why of the leadership handoffs in your life.

• I do, you watch
• I do, you help
• You do, I help
• You do, I watch
• You do, I’m free to move on to what’s next trusting that you have the baton

MLN Book Recommendation

EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey [Link to buy: http://bit.ly/1y2afGY] Here’s how Amazon describes EntreLeadership: “Your team will never grow beyond you, so here’s another question to consider. Are you growing? Whether you’re sitting at the CEO’s desk, the middle manager’s cubicle, or a card table in your living-room-based startup, EntreLeadership provides the practical, step-by-step guidance to grow your business where you want it to go.”