Head Up, Look to the Horizon
Most strong leaders have some common traits. One of the most important of these traits is to keep the eyes focused on the horizon. A leader sets the course and defines the direction—and that takes a long term vision.
I have heard a handle of reasons that cause leaders to land in the weeds, but the two most valid are:
A lack of time devoted to necessary strategic thinking
Fear
The only way to make time for long-range thinking is to avoid spending time on short term, immediate issues. And there are a host of reasons that isn't happening:
The team is not capable of handling immediate tasks and challenges
Your team has the responsibility but not the authority to handle immediate tasks
You have withheld either the responsibility or authority necessary for your team to handle immediate tasks
If your team is capable, but either reason 2 or 3 exists, hurrah, you can fix the problem quickly. Why? Because you are the problem. Fixing yourself is far easier than fixing anyone else.
If the team is not capable, you have work to do. You must train, replace, supplement, or incentivize your team so they can handle short term tasks for you.
What else might be keeping you in the weeds?
Fear.
Competence and success bring promotions. No one becomes a leader without first being a strong individual contributor. So, every leader first excelled in some way in a relatively narrow field. Then they were recognized for expertise. Seeing value for that expertise is seductive and comforting.
But, moving into a brand new area (such as leadership) requires new skills and is hard to measure objectively. So unlike being a well respected, highly experienced engineer, a leader relies on soft skills that are impossible to measure directly.
It is no wonder that the allure and comfort of moving back to what is familiar and brought acclaim is very powerful. It can be downright scary to leave expertise behind and allow your team to handle the tasks you once carried out so efficiently. And sometimes, fear will tempt leaders to slide out of their leadership role and tromp all over their team.
A leader is like a trapeze artist standing on a platform, high above the ground, a long horizontal bar held tightly in his or her hands. When the moment comes to step off the platform, they know success depends on letting go. The trapeze artist and the leader have to trust that they will find what they need before they begin to fall.
It takes courage to let go and fly instead of holding on and moving back to the platform.
Carve out the time you need to look at the horizon by delegating and having the courage to move into your new role. The view is better.
My Leadership Quiz will help you identify where you are flourishing, and which other areas to improve. It takes about five minutes to complete the quiz, and you'll get detailed feedback based on your answers.