You are uniquely powerful. There is nobody else in the universe with your combination of talents, skills, experience, and knowledge. You are incredibly capable and can accomplish amazing things.
And sometimes, you just should back off.
If you are a successful person, you are probably good at what you do. However, nobody is good at everything. One of the most challenge traits of a good leader is balancing the acknowledgement of your own power with the acknowledgement of the power of others. You can do a lot, but you can’t (and shouldn’t) do it all.
Here are a few tips for all leaders to magnify your powers.
1) Spend time exploring your own strengths and capabilities – There are some wonderful tools out there to explore your own personality and talents. While you live inside your own head, you don’t live inside other people’s head. Therefore it is sometimes difficult to figure out what makes you different. Things that are easy for you to do might be hard for others. Start by understanding your own strengths.
2) Spend time learning about the strengths and capabilities of your team – As a team exercise, take an assessment or conduct a workshop where you can learn about each team members unique capabilities. We find that even long time team members learn something about each other.
3) Partner for performance – Hopefully, you will find out that other people on your team can do some things better than you can. While it is sometimes easier to work with someone with similar strengths to your own (you speak the same language), it is often more powerful to work with people who think very differently from you.
Being an effective leader isn’t about making yourself stronger by working on you, it’s about making everyone stronger by working together.
Want more? Check out More Than Work Podcast Episode on this topic!
