No MBA mumbo-jumbo, just stuff that's worked through 30 years of team-building in business and the military.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

One Job

You know that meme that's going around the Internet? "You had one job . . ." Actually, it's been around a while, and the cool people are probably on to something else by now. But the meme is tacked to pictures of people failing; implying that this one simple thing was too much for them.

Well, as a leader, you have one job. Oh, you do a lot more, but those parts of your job aren't leading. Those parts are supervising (making sure work gets done) or administering (keeping track of stuff) or managing (divvying out resources). 

Leaders only do one thing: They move people. That's your one job. Leading means taking people from where they are to a different place. You're Daniel Boone, showing your team how to make it through the mountains to a better life on the other side.

If your team doesn't need to go to anywhere, they don't need a leader; all those other jobs are enough. And if you're not taking them anywhere, you're not leading. You're a custodian, keeping the status quo nice and spiffy.

1 comment:

  1. One of the hard concepts of leadership, and why most leadership happens without authority.

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