Steve* was a great problem solver. In fact he was originally attracted to a career in the technology sector because he loved solving problems. He soon became a legendary technical expert. Give him a problem and he would work night and day to solve it. He was so good that they made him a leader.
However, his transition from technical expert to leader was not so smooth. Initially it seemed to Steve that it was quicker to solve many of the complex technical problems himself. He could usually see the solution right away and besides it took too long to explain it to his team. He said it was really hard to get good people. It was not long before he was too busy and feeling overwhelmed.
Steve realised that something needed to change or else his health would suffer. He had to reinvent his inherent problem solving strength. He was not serving his team or himself by solving the detailed technical problems. Now that he was a leader he had a higher order problem, which was how to get the best out of people. That was a problem worth his time.
However, like many things in life, it is one thing to come to the realisation that something has to change. Putting it into practice is quite another story. Erica Ariel Fox’s book, Winning from Within, calls this closing your performance gap. For Steve’s reinvention to be successful, he needed to build muscle in getting results through people. The practice he adopted was to make specific requests of people around him.
Steve learned the power of making a request for a specific result by a specific time. Pretty soon, people around him started to step up instead of grumbling about him micro-managing them. He also started to free up time in his diary which allowed him to build game-changing strategies.
A foundation stone for game-changing leaders is to reinvent our inherent strength. Making specific requests of others is the practice that turns that concept into reality.
Where could you make requests of others and provide them with a leadership opportunity?
Best regards, Brian
*Name changed to protect the innocent
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