If you want to go FAST, go Alone.
If you want to go FAR, go Together.
As a leader, have you ever wondered “Why can’t people do what I tell them?” or made the statement “I will just do it myself.” I once wrote a trUTips to talk about moving past that to become a more effective and healthy person/leader. Alone in leadership is not ‘without’ people, it is more just about leveraging the talent/resources around me to just do my work in the way I want it done. From the outside, it looks more like dependence and less like a true team or relationship.
Going alone as a leader means adopting a method of leading where your ideas always trump others.
Going alone as a leader means having meetings where information is exchanged but nobody solves any problems together – after all, working alone as a leader means creating a culture where that is the norm.
Going alone means running into an invisible barrier repeatedly that serves as a cap to your business.
Alone is one way to do it, but it becomes just that – Lonely.
In a tool I use to help leaders and teams move past Alone towards really working together.
The fundamentals are simple, and yet hard.
- Start with asking the fundamental questions – “What are the roles we need to grow?” and “Who is willing, able, and capable of doing those roles?”
- The second piece is creating a vision for the next 90 days by establishing the BIG priorities for the organization – or ROCKS.
- Finally, commit to meeting weekly to connect, prioritize the work, solve problems together, and support each other in the work.
That is together, and to go FAR past where you want it is about learning to work together first (gain Traction) then defining FAR together (Strategic Plan) and learning to lead towards that point.
Leaders can go alone if they want, but that is not really leadership. Look around – which part of this quote describes your team?
