Most days, at some level, we perform in our roles as leaders, managers and experts. Whatever our grade, status, job title or purpose we will operate across all three roles. Sometimes one or two of the roles are more to the fore, sometimes all three, but each role is very different and requires very different things of us.
This is my take on these different things and what I think is the essence of each.
Be valued as an expert
- Love your subject, be passionate about what you know, be hungry to know more and be proud that you have expertise. You must never appear to be a reluctant expert; frankly who cares what you know if you do not relish the fact of your expertise yourself. Let your joy in your expertise be infectious.
- Be generous with insight. This is essential for two reasons. First you know things because those things were shared with you; it is your turn now to offer all the insight you can to those who want to emulate you. Second, share and enjoy the fact that what you know can help people and improve situations. Your expertise unlocks problems, enhances value and creates opportunity. Always be prepared to share.
- Apply what you know so that it is useful. Make it accessible, relevant and proportionate. Shape and finesse what you know so that it is the most useful it can be for those who need your help; the application of your expertise to achieve hoped for outcomes is the reason you are worth your salary; make sure you earn every penny.
Be valued as a manager
- Be consistent and measured. A manager is a navigator, an organiser of talent, a coach, a counsellor and communicator. You are the link between success and failure, a pivotal portal through which good strategies must pass to be fulfilled. Your role is to be constant, thoughtful and generous with your time, but clear in what, when and how the contribution of others is needed. You may not be composer, but you are a conductor.
- Recruit really well because good people will challenge, build and enhance the team; but good people also listen, are generous and want to develop. This all sounds obvious, but be self-critical, do you really recruit to test these attributes? Recruitment is a fundamental indicator of your success as a manager. No manager can truly succeed if they have recruited poorly, so be brilliant at recruitment, make it something you are known for and relish its possibilities. Plan it well, be clear on every aspect, and only decide to appoint if the right candidates have come forward; never be concerned to start again. Love the opportunity that recruitment provides and inspire your team to help make every recruitment opportunity a success.
- Develop all of the talent in your team. If you have a focus on talent development it is obvious that colleagues will potentially develop new skills and gain more confidence and more experience, but the reason why talent development is so important is because it fulfils the single most important role of management. The only point to managing people is that individually and collectively colleagues contribute more as a result of your intervention. If that is not the impact of what you do, frankly what are you doing and why do you want to still do it?
Be valued as a leader
- Make it relevant. Leadership is simple; its essence is unambiguous and relevant direction-setting. It has to be relevant for people to engage, support and follow. Relevance works on three levels, first relevant for individuals to commit to the course, secondly relevant in the context f the team as a whole and thirdly relevant for those who are impacted by the actions taken. Relevance creates urgency and momentum; relevance is traction.
- Be brilliant at showing first steps. This, for me, is the most important thing a leader can do and something which distinguishes great leaders from those who trade, albeit often convincingly, in platitudes and singularities. The first step is the hardest, but the difficulty is not an intellectual one (we can all nod our heads when asked if we understand). It is the hardest step because it involves a set of emotional responses that are different for each and every one of us. A step from the “devil we know”, from our comfort zone to a place we do not yet understand or necessarily believe in or want to believe in. A step we may have taken before, but failed; a step we just don’t like, and so on. The only reason to take the step now is because there is a potentially positive outcome to the questions “why me, why now?”
- Create an environment for others to shine. A leader’s motives may well be altruistic, but it is just as likely that as leader we are inspired by our own sense of personal fulfilment. In a way the motive does not matter; what matters is that we have created the environment for our strategies to be fulfilled. The environment is the space to shine with the opportunity to deliver. Other executive colleagues, managers and experts help fulfil our strategies; as leaders we should only hope that we do not get in their way! If as leader we have made the strategy relevant, shown the first steps and created the right environment for colleagues to succeed then we have substantially increased the chances of our success.
…much of this may sound clichéd, but I hope that familiarity with these words does not blur two key points; first that in whatever we do, we are all three roles and all three roles require different things of us; second to be successful therefore we must be clear in our own minds when we are performing each role and ensure we bring different attributes to each role.
That thoughtfulness alone will help us be more successful and valued in what we do.
Paul Gilbert
Chief Executive, LBC wise Counsel
