“Great leaders don’t tell you what to do; they show you how it’s done.”
That was the social media post that made me do a double-take.
“Wait!” I said to myself. “Showing people how it’s done was one of the biggest mistakes of my career.” I still remember some very pointed feedback I received from one of our company’s senior leaders.
“Steve,” she said, “the feedback I’m getting is that you’re a great manager of junior developers, but you’re not very good at managing senior developers.” I learned then that at some point along one’s career growth, showing people how to do their work started to become insulting and counterproductive.
Here are a few variations of that social media post that might work better for different stages of a leader’s career development:
👍 Great leaders of rookies don’t just tell you what to do; they show you how to do it.
👍 Great leaders of skilled artisans don’t show you how to do your work; they just tell you what needs to be done.
👍 Great leaders of great teams don’t tell you what needs to be done; they tell you what results to achieve.
👍 Great leaders of great leaders don’t tell you what results to achieve; they cast a vision to inspire and guide your own goals.
If you’re not sure where you find yourself and you’d like some help in becoming a great leader for your team, let’s talk. Visit stevedwire.com/connect to schedule a complimentary conversation.
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