I’m thinking a lot right now about how to grow as a leader.
As a new leader, I’ve been thinking deeply about how best to embrace leading full-time and how to do this effectively. I’ve found myself referring to our very own Prioritisation for Leaders article and it’s been hugely helpful in providing me with the mental framework for knowing where and how to spend my time.
The article highlights the importance of being hyper-focused on the point of constraint - that is whatever is stopping your organization from sprinting forwards and achieving amazing results, and this should be your primary focus, because it is so important that it is not something that should be delegated.
The main thing I’ve been struggling with as I have been moving away from an execution based role to a leadership role is the busyness trap. Clocking 40++ hours per week, but in reality when I dive into how that time is being spent, it’s often small burst of time spread across lots of little things.
I’ve touched upon previously in my very own Three Principles for Empowering Teams article about the various issues new managers face, but in terms of of a mental framework for handling some of these issues, keeping the key question of “what’s the one thing that holding the org back the most?”, top of mind unlocks a new found sense of clarity that I didn’t have before. By radically adopting this mindset, you prevent sinking time into areas of the business that aren’t essential to your companies growth and momentum.
I believe that if prioritisation for leaders can be done well, that will distinguish a good leader from a great one and likewise for your company.