Last week we talked about acting vs. reacting when we are surprised by challenges.
How often do you get surprised by problems?
Are you a proactive leader?
There are people that lead because they are leaders and there are others that “lead” because they were given a position.
A leader needs to protect their ability to keep their eyes up, looking forward and to the sides to identify problems as the arise.
They cannot be bogged down in the weeds because this doesn’t allow them to do their job.
You can’t lead if you are in the same place as everyone else on the team - you need to be out ahead of them strategically.
Leaders need the opportunity to be strategists and tacticians - to course correct around problems before the team runs right into them.
This is how you lead proactively.
If you do it well, the course corrections and tactical shifts happen subtly and no one feels them happen.
On the other hand, failing to see a problem coming at you and running into it is felt across the whole team.
When speed is constant, the only thing a leader can do to give themselves more time to resolve a problem is to identify it earlier.
The only way to identify a problem early is to see it coming.
If you are in a leadership position, make sure you are looking far enough forward that you are able to fulfil this role.
If you are too bogged down with tasks to be able pick your head up, you need to put in the work to get out ahead of those tasks.
Easier said than done, sure, but leadership is never easy.
A leader that cannot look out to the horizon is going to cause re-work across the team and increase stress and frustration.
Look outward, identify early, work proactively.
Yours in strength,
-Chris
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