Unpopular opinion about how to increase your value as a leader
Early in my career, I had a boss who was everywhere, all the time.
He was in all of the meetings I attended.
He sent the most emails (often after hours).
He could remember details of projects I was working on in more detail than I could remember them.
And…
… later in my career I had another boss.
I very rarely saw her.
She gave me a lot of work to do – probably more work and complexity than I was ready for.
When we met, our conversations were focused and intense.
And she didn’t really give me too much direction and clarity on things.
Her emails were always short and to the point.
Which leader do you think I valued more?
The answer has everything to do with supply and demand.
An increase in supply of something, will decrease the value (or price).
A decrease in supply, will increase the value.
When we think about adding more value as a leader, our brain likes to think that we need to add more, to do more, to spend more time, to be more available to our teams.
And yet, the rules of supply and demand state that if we decrease the supply of our time, our value will naturally increase.
When you pull back on the time you give to your team, remove yourself from non-essential meetings, say “no” more often, here’s what happens:
✅ You focus on your most valuable tasks
✅ Your team starts to value your time more
✅ You start to consider the essentials of what you want to communicate
✅ You will naturally uplevel your team because they will need to figure more out on their own
CAVEAT: Now, If you’re a leader who is already scarce and spread thin, you may not need to reduce the time you give to your team. Please use this insight to find a balance that works for you.
But I want you to really think whether your drive to do more, to give more time to your team and to be more available in meetings comes from the thought that you “need to do more”?
Because whenever your brain says “I need to do more”, what it’s actually saying is:
“I’m not doing enough” as in “not adding enough value”.
And then you’ll try to increase the supply of your time to increase your value, but the opposite will occur.
But when you believe that your time is already incredibly valuable, you will value your time more, and
✅ You’ll be more focused on the essentials,
✅ You’ll say “no” more often with confidence,
✅ You’ll be more selective of where you spend it,
✅ And people will know that when they meet with you there are clear expectations of how they can use your time.
And that’s how you increase your value as a leader.
If you struggle to do this because of current circumstances, we can help to simplify things for you so that you can amplify your value as a leader. Contact us for an exploratory conversation.
