OVERLOAD. KILLS. EXECUTION.
Managers are increasingly overloaded and disengaged—and the answer isn’t another leadership program. It’s removing the CRAP™ that prevents them from executing.
Bold Decisions Create Extraordinary Businesses.
I hope it helps you create yours.
Managers Are Drowning
Managers are being asked to do more.
Lead people.
Execute strategy.
Deliver results.
Manage change.
Attend endless meetings.
Learn new technology.
Deal with fewer resources.
And somehow keep everyone engaged while they’re struggling to stay engaged themselves.
The conventional response?
Give them more leadership training.
Another course.
Another framework.
Another toolkit.
Another damn thing to do.
I think we’ve got it backwards.
Before giving managers MORE…
Ask what you can REMOVE.
Stop Training. Start SERVING.
I practiced something I call Leadership by Serving Around™.
It’s ridiculously simple.
Get out of your office.
Go where people are actually doing the work.
And ask:
“How can I help?”
Not:
“How are things going?”
Not:
“Are you hitting your numbers?”
Not:
“Have you completed the latest leadership module?”
Ask what is preventing them from doing their job.
What process is getting in their way?
What Dumb Rule™ is making customers angry?
What approval is slowing them down?
What meeting is wasting their time?
What CRAP™ is suffocating execution?
Then do something about it.
Serving Is an Execution Move
This isn’t soft leadership.
It isn’t wandering around trying to be liked.
Leadership by Serving Around™ is an execution strategy.
Your Strategic Game Plan™ depends on people getting things done.
Every obstacle you leave in their way weakens execution.
So the leader’s job isn’t simply to demand more performance.
It’s to remove whatever prevents performance.
That’s LEAD IT.
HELP.
This week, find five people trying to execute your strategy.
Ask each one:
“How can I help?”
Then shut up.
Listen.
Find the obstacle.
Remove it.
And keep doing it.
Because overloaded managers don’t need another leadership lesson.
They need leaders who make it easier for them to lead.
That’s Leadership by Serving Around™.
Stop adding. Start removing. HELP.
