Three Leadership Strategies That No Longer Work

As I was moving up in my career I relied on three strategies to succeed at work. To get good reviews, to get promoted, to get the sale.

The problem with all of these strategies is that they work.

Until they don’t. Until they exhaust you.

You might not even be aware of them. I know I wasn’t. But now I see them everywhere.

What are those strategies?

Outpleasing

Just say yes to everything anyone ever asks of you. What could be wrong with that?

There is nothing wrong with outstanding customer service.

There is nothing wrong with making sure your boss or your client is happy.

Except that sometimes, that means NOT saying things that actually should be said.

Not telling the truth, avoiding conflict, and continuing to do things that make no sense because you don’t have the courage to challenge them.

Ever been afraid to tell the client that what they want will not work? And then lost the client when it didn’t?

Ouch.

Out pleasing may look like it works. But at some point it will fail. Often spectacularly.

Outworking

When I was a law firm lawyer, I made sure that I had more total hours than anyone else in my department. And my billables were always high, too.

You need me on a weekend? You need me to stay late? I’m there. Mr. Dedication.

When you are doing the same thing as a lot of other people, outworking them is a tempting way to differentiate yourself.

The challenge, like the other strategies I am going to discuss, is that it most likely is not sustainable. At my law firm, I fell into a destructive cycle of caffeine during the day and alcohol at night and never feeling fulling awake and engaged.

I created the APPEARANCE of working hard (and I WAS exhausted) but I was not really producing much. It fit the law firm model, but it FELT awful.

Outsmarting

This is the one I run into most with founders and even CEOs of larger companies.

When you start your own business, BY DEFINITION one of the reasons you are doing it is because you think you have a better way.

A better idea, a better process, better code.

And it can be easy to think that if you were hired as the CEO, it must have been because you are really, really smart.

But if you have a head of sales, a head of product, a head of finance, a head of IT, are you really trying to tell me you know more than ALL of them? If you do, you don’t hire very good people.

One of my CEO clients told me he only owns two things—culture and vision.

Everything else has a smarter person than him in charge of it.

He grew the company and sold to a strategic buyer. You can do the same.

What To Do Instead?

If you find yourself doing these, and getting burned by them, there is an answer.

It’s not perfect. But it is perfect for you. And you will find the perfect people to help you.

You have a perfect leadership style, just waiting to be revealed.

If this resonates, let’s talk.

Going Deeper

If you want to explore this in more depth, this journey from knowing all the answers to questioning what to do next, you are not alone.

More and more founders like you are coming out of the spiritual closet and seeing their work, and what they want to create, as a vital personal journey to both abundance and meaning. To the joy of feeling alive and “on purpose.”

This is what I write about. For founders, for original thinkers, no matter where they are in their transformation.

The world needs YOU, in all your brilliance and imperfection.

If you are a founder wanting to scale and sell your company, there are three shifts in identity that can help you do so with twice the impact and half the stress. Take a look at this video.

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