Leadership is about maintaining sensible, practical habits and a mindset of learning. I’ve structured this post so all the activities and practical tips are enclosed in boxes, making them easier to find.
If I’m honest, my first leadership role wasn’t a big success. I was young, inexperienced and made a lot of mistakes. In fact, I’d say that I learned more from being a bad leader than from being a good one.
The mistakes I made taught me a huge amount. I was:
+ Young, inexperienced and suddenly in charge of a team.
+ Driven largely by KPIs and my team’s daily output (but with the wrong approach).
+ Focused on the company needs and numbers (yes important but you have to motivate with the right context), instead of the needs of my team
Does this sound like you? Leaders are often placed under huge pressure to deliver metrics while building teams at scale. It’s no surprise that their team’s ‘motivation’ doesn’t factor into their mindset.
This style of leadership is often characterised with black and white thinking — either your team are delivering or they’re failing. As you might expect, this type of style doesn’t bring out the best in people.
Being numbers-driven affected the performance of my team, and this was how I learned the single most important function of a leader.
Your most important job is to help your team perform at their best.
You need to focus on three important capabilities:
1. Learning and mentorship
2. Structure and process
3. Building high performance habits
Read the full post here 🚀
