Your ego might not like this one...

In partnership with

Ahoy,

Leadership isn’t a zero sum game.

There’s plenty of leadership to go around.

That means, let your ego go and let other people give it a go.

“But Reece… I’m meant to be in charge! How will people know I’m in charge if I let my team members take the lead on things!”

Today isn’t going to be a long one.

Let me explain.

The common misconception around being in a leadership position, is that you need to make sure people know you’re in charge.

But in classic leadership dichotomy fashion:

“If you have to tell people you’re in charge, you’re probably not…”

What does this mean?

Leadership is about influence, and that influence can originate from a number of places.

The most power place is strong relationships.

The best leaders have the best relationships with their team.

However, another source of influence comes from rank or position.

However, if you’re constantly having to remind people of your rank or position, it’s probably because they’re more focused on listening to someone else.

And that someone else is probably leading via a strong relationship instead of by rank.

They might not even realise they’re doing it!

The issue here is you’re retaliating with your ego.

It feels wrong to have people that are not in the position of leadership that you’re in having a larger slice of the leadership capital than you.

But in your attempt to balance the scales, you’ve created an inverse relationship between how hard you try to remind the team that you’re in charge, and how much leadership capital you have.

Just like trying to get to sleep at night.

The harder you try and force it, the further away it seems to be.

Here’s where it all comes full circle.

Leadership is not a zero sum game.

Just because you’re “the leader”, that doesn’t mean other people in the team can’t lead too.

Actually, the best thing in this situation is to let those people lead.

Give them more opportunities to take lead roles, and take your opportunity to coach and nurture some potential talent!

Ultimately we want to win.

And if people are developing within the team, then we are more likely to win.

Its hard to drop the ego, I understand.

But this can also be an excellent opportunity for you to demonstrate your coaching skills.

And rather surprisingly, the more willing you are to relinquish control of a situation, the more in control you appear.

The more you allow others that want to lead, to lead, the more confident you appear as the team leader.

There are genuinely so many benefits to this shift in mindset.

This isn’t a case of “not doing”.

We’re not standing by and watching.

We’re taking an active role in developing the team which will help us win in the long run.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s newsletter.

As always, have a great day.

Reece