Understanding the details has never been more critical for effective leadership. Yet it’s important to walk the line between being informed and getting involved. In my coaching practice, I’ve seen many examples of executives confusing command of the details with commanding the troops as to what do to about them. That marginalizes their skills, even as it drains your time and energy. Be clear about when and why you are shifting from simply being informed, to becoming involved. Your people will respond by doing more creative, autonomous, and effective work.
Self-coaching:
- What are your standards for involvement? That is, what must be true for you to become involved in a problem / issue or situation among your team?
- Are there certain issues or situations (or feelings?) that tend to have you bypass your standards for involvement and become more directive than you might like?
- How can you use this new awareness to catch yourself, and remind yourself about the distinction between being informed and getting involved?
David Peck
Executive Coach and President
Leadership Unleashed
Twitter: recoveringleadr
______________________
Based on client experiences / lessons learned, our weekly LeaderTips have been offering self-coaching themes and topics of interest to leaders since 2004. They are often published in BusinessWeek Online, sent weekly to our clients, and hundreds of other corporate leaders worldwide. I invite you to forward them to others, who are also welcome to subscribe using the link below. Note that over 100 of these tips appear in my book, Beyond Effective: Practices in Self-aware Leadership. Click here to subscribe to LeaderTips via email.
