The most important decision a leader makes is how to invest their most valuable resources: time and energy. One of the biggest challenges I hear from leaders is finding enough time to focus on the most strategic parts of their roles. Too often, leaders feel overwhelmed by having to respond to the constant barrage of urgent issues that consume most of their time and energy, leaving them scrambling to find “extra” time to try to achieve the most important responsibilities of their role.
A helpful way for leaders to assess how they should focus their time and energy is through the lens of In and On the Business. Michael E. Gerber popularized this concept in his book The E-Myth Revisited. The “In the Business” activities are the day-to-day operational aspects of their leadership role. These urgent activities come to the leader’s door; if they let them, they will devour all available energy and time. The “On the Business” activities are their more strategic leadership responsibilities. These responsibilities are focused on long-term success, establishing culture, developing employees and innovation. These are responsibilities that the leader is the only person on the team that can effectively perform.
Each leadership role has a unique continuum of “In” vs. “On” the Business responsibilities that are important to complete. Success as a leader requires focusing on accomplishing the most strategic aspects of their role while also managing urgent day-to-day issues. Below are the 3 Levels of Strategic Leadership a leader must successfully navigate for ongoing success.
1) Strategically Leading Self
President Eisenhower said, “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” Too often, leaders spend the most time working on the least important things and the least on the most important ones.
Understanding the distinction between urgent and strategic tasks is important for a leader to be successful. Urgent activities demand time because they are more visible, immediate and louder than strategic tasks.
- Live Your Leadership Purpose – The more I live, the clearer it becomes that living purposefully is the key to a meaningful life at work and home. Purposeful leadership may sound nebulous, but we clearly see the positive impact when we witness leaders who understand and live their unique purpose. A leader’s purpose explains their “why” of leadership and should be a North Star that provides clarity and direction when navigating the complex situations that come with leadership.
- Learn to Say “No” – In our busy and complex world, leaders can often fall into the trap of feeling that everything is critical and merits the highest priority. The unfortunate truth with this mindset is that if everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. A leader must learn to say NO or push back against the inevitable onslaught of urgent activities that constantly derail them from focusing on their most important leadership activities.
- Delegate to Elevate – Effective leaders understand that they must continually assess how they spend their time and delegate activities that others can and should do. The best managers don’t delegate because they believe they are “too good” or “too important” to do these tasks; they understand that it is no longer their role.
- Develop Your Self-Leadership Abilities – We will never effectively lead others until we first learn to lead ourselves. As leaders, who we are is more important than what we know. Self-Leadership is the foundation that enables leaders to effectively express all their other knowledge, skills, abilities, passions, and values. The SOAR Self-Leadership Model provides a practical roadmap for demonstrating self-awareness, emotional intelligence, mindfulness, social intelligence, and agility when engaging in important and complex situations that require strong relationships for success.
2) Strategically Leading Teams
One of the most fundamental and difficult transitions emerging leaders must make is shifting from being the star performer to being an effective leader. The change in mindset that all evolving leaders must make is the belief that “it is more important to get it right than it is to be right.” Let me explain.
“Being right is all about having the answers.”
“Getting it right is about creating an environment where employees feel connected, valued, and capable of doing their best work.”
The baseline for team effectiveness is having a group of capable and engaged individuals. But having talented individuals is not enough! Leaders must create a team environment that enables them to efficiently and effectively complete tasks and build healthy relationships. If done correctly, this will clearly align teams to the organization’s vision, mission, values and strategic goals so that everyone executes the vision daily.
- Clear Connection to Organization’s Strategic Priorities – The company strategy must be the primary guide for when teams make decisions about their highest priorities. When team members do not see a direct alignment between their work and the organization’s strategic goals, it becomes difficult to prioritize their time and to find meaning in their work.
- Right Capabilities and Organizational Structure – Leaders are responsible for ensuring their teams have the right capabilities and an effective organizational design to achieve the company’s strategic priorities. Clarity and synergy of team members’ authority, responsibilities and tasks are needed for the team to accomplish its goals effectively. Each team member should clearly understand who is responsible for what and the extent of their authority.
- Focus On Their Fewest Most Important Tasks – Because urgent activities will always try to steal a team’s time, they must build in dedicated time and a process for working on their most strategic responsibilities for long-term organizational success. Establishing a recurring team meeting that solely focuses on assessing, problem-solving, and supporting the team’s fewest, most important strategic goals and operational metrics is crucial to long-term success.
- Problem-Solve Important Issues – The best teams are great at problem-solving. Teams need a clear and simple scorecard to keep track of progress so the team, organization and employees understand if they are winning or losing. Resolving critical issues that get in the way of accomplishing strategic goals should be the central component of a leadership team’s recurring meeting focus. Leadership teams should have a defined process for problem-solving that is effective and inclusive.
3) Strategically Leading Employees
Companies spend countless dollars on nice facilities, fair and equitable pay, and state-of-the-art technology, but if employees feel they have a bad manager, all these other factors diminish because they will struggle to stay productive and motivated.
The most important indicator of an employee’s engagement, well-being and productivity is a healthy relationship with their immediate manager. The most direct way to assess if an employee feels supported by their manager is to ask the following question:
Do you feel your manager cares about your well-being and professional success?
- 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗚𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀 and Priorities – Meaningful goals are a magnet for maximizing a person’s effort, intellect, emotional and social intelligence. Creating clarity of expectations might be the most essential role of a manager.
- 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 – A leader builds relationships with employees by asking questions and listening to understand their goals, strengths, weaknesses, perspectives and ideas for successful action. These ongoing conversations enable managers to establish a culture where employees feel valued, safe, empowered and motivated.
- Ongoing 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 – Very few feedback conversations are so straightforward that managers do not need to hear others’ perspectives and gather more information. Taking time for questions and listening enables greater insight into how best to deliver difficult feedback messages, create clarity on the next steps and establish shared accountability.
- Coaching Conversations – The strategic mindset shift for leaders is understanding that success in their role is no longer to be the chief problem-solver. Success as a leader is all about empowering others, developing employees and building trust for ongoing team success. The primary tool to accomplish this mindset shift is coaching.
Primary Role Of A Strategic Leader
Once an employee successfully scales to leadership position, they can no longer focus just on their ability to get things done. Their primary focus must shift to creating a healthy, high-performing culture where employees feel connected, valued and capable of doing their best work.
Successfully addressing these 3 Levels of Strategic Leadership is essential for leaders to achieve their highest potential and impact. How are you becoming a more strategic leader?