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First do nothing
Posted on: Friday, October 09, 2009
Often I am asked what is the main thing or the first thing or even the one thing (any permutation is possible here) leaders should do to become more successful. Having failed many times to come up with something clever I now have my answer!
I started by adopting the first rule of medicine - first do no harm. The reason is rather simple, any research you care to look at will show you that employee engagement dramatically falls following recruitment. You can of course put that down to the reality not quite meeting expectations but the role leadership plays in "demotivating" followers is quite stark and worrying. First do no harm seems therefore like an appriopriate response.
Over the last few years, however, I have come to expand the scope of my answer somewhat. I now thing that the first rule should be - first, do nothing! Of course I understand that leadership is about making choices and that you have to do something to be successful in business. But the idea that there is something you can DO to be a better leader is somewhat misguided.
The first question should never be 'what must I DO to be a better leader' but rather 'who must I BE'. Focusing on the DO invariably leads to tactics, strategies and recipes which, because they are in no way internalized, are likely to make you look weird at best and inauthentic/manipulative at worst. Focusing on who must I BE leads to a much more fruitful and valuable line of inquiry. Do I really see myself as a leader? What is the value of leadership? Am I a teacher or an administrator? ....
By focusing on the BE rather than the DO first, leaders establish the right conditions for any change in their behavior to be possible and sustainable where necessary. It is high time we stopped doing leadership and started to be leaders.
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