The Single Most Overlooked Truth About Leadership
Some of the things that make up a good leader are counter-intuitive. In other words, they’re not obvious until someone repeatedly makes the same mistake... and then finally wakes up and learns the lesson.
Of course, I’ve never made those mistakes personally. I’m only saying I’ve heard other people have made mistakes. But definitely not me.
One reason these lessons are hard for me...sorry, I mean... other leaders to accept... is because they go against their day-to-day experience.
What happens over the course of time is, leaders can develop a form of tunnel vision without ever being aware of it.
Now, this isn’t your fault.* You rely on other people to perform their job well.
This means your focus is often drawn towards problems and issues with team members; and by “drawn towards,” I mean in the way you’re drawn towards a black hole before it inevitably crushes you down into your constituent atoms. Or in other words: in a bad way.
For example, you might sometimes give instructions that seem to fall on deaf ears. Team members might start pulling in different directions for no apparent reason, causing friction and unnecessary hair loss.
Then there’s the clash of personalities... seemingly inevitable when you put a bunch of high-powered people in a room and ask them if they could, like... do what you’re paying them to do?
OK, look… if I listed all the potential issues with teams we’d be here all week… but I think you’d agree, the common factor in these things is other people, right?
This is how leaders unconsciously develop tunnel vision. They’re always looking down one end of the telescope.
The other common factor is… you. You’re at the other end of the telescope.
Now, I’m not saying you’re to blame for your team’s issues. Not yet, anyway. I’m still at the “don’t say it but drop massive hints about it” stage. Up next is the “break it to them gently but speak ‘generally’ so they don’t get offended” stage.
Generally speaking, what few leaders realize is, just about every one of the problems they experience with their team has the leader as its source.
Before you use my head to practice a little rock-throwing, let me tell you a story I learned from a former US Navy SEAL training instructor.
New Navy SEAL candidates have their teamwork abilities tested to the limit. On one occasion, they were grouped into boat crews of seven men. Each was assigned a leader and given an inflatable boat which they might find useful.
The instructors had the teams take part in a series of races, and a pattern soon emerged. Boat Crew II almost always came in first, while Boat Crew VI nearly always came last.
The leader of the losing team complained about how the winning group had much stronger team members. Naturally it was his team’s fault for losing.
As you can imagine, Navy SEAL instructors listen to complaints and passing the blame with a sympathetic ear and plenty of hugs.
Anyway, to teach a gentle lesson, they switched the leaders of Boat Crews II and VI around… so the complaining leader now led the team that won most of the previous races.
What happened next wasn’t a surprise to the instructors. They’d seen it many times before.
Boat Crew II, the former champions most of the time, still did well... but with their new complaining leader, they never took first place again.
Boat Crew VI, despite coming last in most of the previous races, now came in second or first in nearly all of the races that followed.
The only change was the leader.
Lesson #1: Navy SEAL instructors are always open for a friendly chat about how it’s not your fault… while you’re giving them 100 push-ups.
Lesson #2: The leader is the defining factor in the success or failure of a team. It really is down to you.
In my experience, when a leader acknowledges this important truth… it becomes their key to building a team that lifts and pulls together.
In the next post, I’ll give you the missing link to achieve this. It’s what other leadership books aren’t telling you. Please contain your excitement... or at least work it off by giving me 50 push-ups.
* So I guess it kind of is your fault after all. That sucks. But at least you now know why, and at least you didn’t just skip down to the end to see if I had some sarcastic comment waiting for you down here, because I don’t. Also, I just want to be clear, I’ve never made this mistake. Ever. Did I say that already?
