Great leaders do 5 things: 1) They give clear direction; 2) They provide the necessary tools; 3) They get the heck out of the way and let their people run. After creating clear openings and providing the right tools and resources, you must let go.
For your company to grow, you must take things off your plate and delegate them to others so you can apply yourself to leading, managing and only doing the things you excel at. By trying to do everything or control everything, you become a bottleneck that restricts growth. If everything has to be done your way, you also deprive your company of creativity from others that can be an accelerant to growth. Bottom line – you have to let go and let your people run.
One caveat: Bad things are going to happen when you delegate to the wrong person and walk away. Only let go when you have delegated the role or tasks to a person who gets it, wants it and has the capacity to do the job well. In future posts, we’ll look at how to effectively manage your people without smothering and micro-managing them.
Takeaway point for this week:
- Answer this question: I am letting go and letting every one of my direct reports run – yes or no? If your answer is yes to 6 out of 7, it’s no. To be a great leader every person reporting to you needs to be free to do their job.
Encouragement: Letting go of things you have always done or things you created can be very difficult. The simple rule is: when you have too much on your plate, delegate everything you aren’t great at to someone who is great at it. If you want more details, review 5 Steps to Help You Delegate and Elevate.
