After leading teams of all shapes and sizes for over 20 years (and that’s just professionally! See my leadership story here), what I’ve come to realise is that behind the skills that you need to learn are a set of beliefs that will enable you to not only learn the skills but also practice them, learn from your experience and keep on improving.  In this series, I’m going to share with you what those beliefs are and how they are going to make you so much more successful with any team you lead.

The first one of  these is The Law of Positive Intent and you can find that here. The second one I want to talk about today, is the belief that we lead people not things.

This is a belief that many of us struggle to really embrace.  Most of us are promoted into a leadership position because we have done an amazing job at getting things done. We’ve become experts at something and now the organisation want us to make sure that more people do the same thing. If you run your own business, it’s pretty similar too. The likelihood is that you started on your own doing it all, and as your business has grown, you’ve had to employ people to do the doing as there aren’t enough hours in the day for you to get it all done.

So what’s the problem?

The problem is that we’ve become what I call “Operational Geniuses” (see my roadmap to leadership success here). We’re great at getting the thing done, we know how it all fits together and we love seeing the end result. But now our role is different. We’re now not responsible for doing the job, we are responsible for the people who are doing the job.  Now this is a shift that some people find easy to do, others struggle with and others may never quite get there. And it is a choice. 

So how will this belief help you?

Well, if you believe that we lead people and not things, then you will find it easier to make the choice to let go of the things and focus on the people. What is it that they need in order to do the job and deliver? How can I help them? How can I make it easier for them? How do I ensure that they enjoy what they do and therefore deliver with more ease? Where can I support them?

Does this mean that you’re not accountable for the final results? No! But your part is to ensure that your people have what they need in order to deliver and not to do it yourself or get in the way of them delivering.

In the next part we’ll look at the importance of removing obstacles for your team

So, tell me, is this something you’re struggling to do? Where’s the struggle? How will it be when you can believe that you lead people and not things?

I read every comment, so please do comment below or email me at sonia@soniagavira.com

Speak soon

Sonia x


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