Leadership: It's Not About Working Hard

Performance improvisers know that a good performance often turns on the little things – a small gesture, a raised eyebrow, a well-timed pause – rather than broad actions that dominate the stage and call attention to themselves. A performer doesn’t need to be loud, antic, and busy in order to be successful. Indeed, this approach often bulldozes over others and undermines the performance.

Similarly, good leadership often hinges not so much on broad strokes but on deftly applied actions and words that can have a huge impact on the overall performance of the leader and his team. A situation early in my career brought this point home to me in a powerful way.

I had just completed my first year in a formal leadership role and was sitting in the office of my manager – a fellow named Clif Anderson – awaiting my annual performance review. I expected Clif to lead off with feedback about my accomplishments and areas needing improvement over the past year. Instead, however, he began the session by asking me a simple question:

“Jerry, what do you think is your biggest strength?”

Taken aback a bit, I quickly ran through the Rolodex of responses in my mind and found myself blurting out the following:

“Well … I work hard.”

Without missing a beat, Clif smiled and said something I’ve never forgotten:

“Jerry, that’s great. We all want to put out our best effort. But now that you’re in a leadership role, one thing you need to understand is: Leadership is not about working hard.”

Clif went on to explain a point about leadership that I’ve observed repeatedly since then. When they first assume a leadership role, many people have difficulty making a mindshift from their former roles as individual contributors. Quite often the new leader still thinks of her role as one of rolling up the sleeves, expending lots of effort, and applying her technical knowledge to the work of the department. This is quite understandable – and I think Clif observed this in my own performance – because utilizing technical knowledge and getting work done are what have led to career success up to that point.

But, as Clif pointed out, a leader’s role requires different sets of skills than continuing to be a “doer” of the department’s work. Certainly there are times when a leader needs to pitch in and help out. But these are the exceptional situations. A leader’s role is primarily one of seeing that the department’s work gets done through the efforts of other people.

The kinds of skills this requires are less about performing tasks and more about utilizing such people-oriented behaviors as:

·         Understanding each of your people and what makes him or her tick;

·         Saying the right words at the right time to motivate, engage, and inspire;

·         Finding opportunities (and there are plenty) to recognize people for a job well done;

·         Encouraging innovation and creative thinking;

·         Using powerful questions to spark your people’s thinking and to coach them to come up with their own solutions.

Indeed , Clif’s own behavior in starting the performance review with a powerful question was an ideal model for the point he was making about leadership. And it’s a point that has stuck with me to this day.