What I'd Tell My Younger Self About Leadership

Author and podcaster Tim Ferriss occasionally asks his interview guests what advice they would give their 20/30/40 year old self. As I started wrapping up my first leadership position, I thought about Tim's question and what I wish I knew two years ago and what advice I would like to pass on to my successor.

Be Yourself

Yes, the same advice your mom has probably been giving you your entire life. Your team will be watching you and how you act; it will be apparent to them if you’re not being your authentic self. They will notice and you will feel uncomfortable, so just be yourself, warts and all.

Act “As If”

If you’re not sure what to do, ask yourself what a good leader would do in that situation and act accordingly – act as if you were that good leader. Eventually, behaving in that way will become second nature and you’ll find that you became what you were striving for.

Just Come Out with It

Your team will always be smarter than you think they are and will know more than you think they do. If you have bad news, just give it to them straight; don’t sugar coat it or talk around it. If they ask a direct question, give them a direct answer. If you don’t like or don’t agree with the news that you have to share, tell them. This will help you build credibility, trust, and “leadership capital”.

Give Them What They Need

Your inclination will be to manage someone how you would want to be managed, rather than how they want to be managed – the leadership version of the “Platinum Rule” vs. the “Golden Rule”. Resist that urge and if you don’t know what someone needs, just ask them. Everyone interprets opposites differently (attention vs. space, direction vs. freedom, praise vs. silence), so try to find out what resonates with them.

Only Hire People You’d Want to Work For

Don’t hire anyone that you wouldn’t feel comfortable working for if the situation were reversed. In fact, you do work for the people that report to you – your team is going to come to you constantly and you need to trust their feedback, take action on their concerns, and know that they will take care of your needs and your customers too. If you wouldn’t want to work for that person, they should be out of consideration.

Teach a Horse the Skills Needed to Find Water

Take the old adage of “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink” a few steps further – assuming you have a motivated horse and they want to drink, even leading them to water or telling them where to find the water isn’t enough; they now only know where that one water source is. You need to teach people the foundational skills they need to find their own water for them to be truly independent and reach their full potential.

Take the View from “The Balcony”

If you’re being promoted on your current team, you probably know the ins and outs of the role that you’re now overseeing. It will be easy to get caught up in every minor detail or momentary blip in time. Instead of staying in the weeds, think about how the garden looks from the balcony – view your team’s work from a perspective that allows you to see your team as a whole and those that are impacted by what you do. Overreacting will inhibit your ability to have success down the road through failed initiatives, false promises, or having cried wolf.

Be Wary of Over-committing Your Team

Organizations are complex and most decisions have unintended consequences. People will come out of the woodwork asking you and your team to take on more work, change your process to suit theirs, and provide more customized services. Always check with your team and reserve the right to let the information marinate before you make a decision. It’s incredibly difficult to stop providing a service or offload work to another team once you’ve agreed to do it. If you want to take something on, use it as an opportunity to try to do away with another undesirable task on your team’s plate.

Balance Your “Books”

The stoic Seneca said “Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day. The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.” – Operate as a leader as if tomorrow were your last day in the role. What would you want your team’s life to be like when you’re gone? What would you want to work on? That process that’s inefficient and no one likes? Fix it. The report your team sends that no one reads? Cancel it. The $10 item that would make people happier? Buy it. Balance your books each day to make sure those in your care are taken care of.

"Act as if" - inspired by Adam Carolla

"The Balcony" - inspired by my friend Linda St. John