4 Things That Good Leaders Are Good At That Prevent Them From Being GREAT Leaders.
1. The Grind
Good leaders are good at grinding out those difficult weeks that come with big decisions and many business-critical things outside of their control.
The trouble is that the grind creates survival habits and a survival environment — one that makes those weeks more stressful and the rest of the time about recovery for both leader and company.
Great leaders step back and find the perspective shift required to embrace whatever comes, allowing them to separate their choices from their current level of certainty about the future.
Whether chaos or calm, it’s chop wood, carry water.
2. Hard Work
The ability to work hard is not to be underestimated. Everyone should work as hard as they can on one thing at some point in their lives to learn what they’re capable of — and most good leaders have.
But as a leader you aren’t paid to work hard. You’re paid to keep the business in high-performance mode. That means keeping yourself in high-performance mode and then creating processes that support the business to do the same.
Hard work inevitably stands in the way of a leader’s ability to do that.
3. Getting Behind the Wheel
Good leaders are great at stepping in or pointing out how it needs to be done — and this can be invaluable. To have someone who has been there and done it can really speed things up in the moment.
Except it doesn’t last for long. Being a master plate-spinner, running between all the trainee plate-spinners to make sure they don’t drop the plates, does two things:
It stops the trainee learning from real-world feedback.
It makes the leader busier and less effective than before.
A great leader is a master teacher. And teaching doesn’t mean showing — it means supporting a test, operate, test, operate process of learning so that each person is empowered to develop themselves.
This is what ultimately creates speed: a true learning culture.
4. Focus
Good leaders are good at getting into a flow state. That dopamine-driven, high-energy state where you flow through small tasks, tough conversations, and big decisions, and the day goes by in a blur.
But that flow often comes with adrenaline and cortisol. When the work is done, the adrenaline remains. Now sugar or alcohol is needed to calm down. Sleep becomes difficult. Stimulants are needed the next day to get back into the flow state — because the natural energy just isn’t there.
A great leader understands how to create the most desirable state for the situation without relying on tools that create negative future consequences. They make presence of mind their main objective in every waking moment.
I was careful when writing this to be clear that good leaders work hard, grind, get involved, and thrive in their tasks.
All of that is good — great even. You can get incredibly far that way. But those same good things prevent others from becoming their best, while also causing the health of the leader to deteriorate through stress, poor decisions, and damaged relationships.
The step to great requires a complete shift in focus. One that puts energy above force, skill power above willpower, presence of mind above hustle, and peace above productivity.
It’s about mastering the ONLY thing under your control: yourself.
There’s no shame in putting your effort into trying to master things outside your control. It’s part of the journey.
The only question is:
When are you going to devote your attention to mastering yourself?
