Welcome back!
As a leader, your goal is to treat people equitably, not equally. For example, if someone is able to produce 20 widgets a day, and someone else is only able to produce 10, and your company’s minimum per day is 10, then both of your workers are meeting the goal. And that’s good enough. If you try to force the 10 widget person to do 20, you’ll overwhelm them to the point of non-functioning. If you restrict the 20 widget person to only 10, you will frustrate and demotivate them. The point is to maximize the abilities of each individual person, while still holding them accountable to minimally acceptable productivity standards. Not everyone can be a superstar. There is no one size fits all approach to people. Every person is unique. One of the most refreshing and endlessly fascinating aspects of leadership is that it doesn’t matter what has worked with anyone else in the past. Each time you gain a new direct report, you have to start all over again and learn how to lead that particular person. That’s why leadership can never truly be mastered. It can definitely be made easier with some of the software that’s out there, like the OKR software you can get from Profit.co, but on a general level leadership is an interpersonal skill.
This is a good time to pause and reflect on why you became a leader. Was it because you have a heart to lead people, teams, and organizations? Or was it just for a bigger paycheck, more prestigious title, and a fancier office? These trappings of leadership are just that: traps. Keep your ego in check and realize that awesome leaders do their best work alongside their team, not perched on some lofty pedestal above them. This can never be said enough: you are not God. So don’t allow the seductive siren call of “having arrived” lead you down a path where as the Bible says, pride indeed goeth before your fall. Even if you got in the leadership business for the wrong reasons, it’s never too late to start a fresh new chapter filled with health, joy, peace, and great results. The choice is entirely up to you.
Until next time, I’ll be praying that you’ll candidly examine your own heart and if necessary, do what’s necessary to clean it up and move forward in a positive direction. You got this!
