Are you the smartest person on your team? What if I told you you don’t have to be? The Colonel said, “You don’t have to know everything, kiddo. Don’t pretend to. Surround yourself with people you trust to know what you don’t and be willing to do the work to learn.”
The Colonel was one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met. But Dad didn’t know everything. No one does. Your leadership will improve once you realize you don’t have to know everything, and you don’t have to pretend that you do.
In the late decades of the 20th century, it was common business practice to recognize one’s weaknesses and work hard to shore up those weaker areas. If one could learn more and gain more skills in those weak areas, the conventional thought was that one would be more valuable as an employee and as a leader. It wasn’t until Strength Finders and similar companies began to gain popularity that this belief changed, and people started focusing on their individual strengths. That shift made me so happy!
I am a communicator, negotiator, creative visualizer, and team cheerleader. Profit and loss, depreciation, amortization, payables, receivables, total cost assessments, and all that other accounting “schtuff” make my brain hurt. I am so much more effective as a leader when I have someone I trust who knows and loves all the numbers stuff and will handle it for me. I allow her to do her thing and trust she will tell me what I need to know.
If you’re honest about what you don’t know, your team will respect your honesty. Then, it’s important for you to trust those who do know and, if it is in the best interests of the team, be willing to learn those things. Sometimes, though, it is not in the team’s best interest—the leader needs to trust the experts and move forward based on their expertise and advice.
Read Lauren’s Whitepaper on The Nine Essentials of Significant Leadership.
