Do the hard jobs yourself.<\/em> <\/strong>You are never too senior or too important to get your hands dirty and model hard work for your team. This might include physically hard work, such as at a startup when everyone needs to load boxes onto a truck to make an urgent deadline for a customer. More likely, it will include emotionally hard work, such as deciding who will be laid off as part of an urgent cost reduction, and then telling the affected people directly. Don\u2019t delegate such tasks to HR; even if a major layoff requires an experienced HR team to execute, you can volunteer to lead that team and communicate to everyone personally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Be brave enough to say, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/strong> <\/strong><\/em>Many leaders find it painful to feel ignorant, underprepared or vulnerable. Yet, especially during a crisis, it\u2019s important to remember that no one has all the answers. It is okay to admit (both to yourself and your people) that you are not in control of what\u2019s happening, and you need the team to work together to determine the best path forward. You want people to see you as a truth seeker, not a savant with all of the answers. Great leaders (especially startup founders) have a fierce desire to get it right<\/em> but not necessarily to be right<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Listen to internal teammates you can trust. <\/strong>Leaders are often bombarded by suggestions and opinions, especially when serious trouble is brewing. It can be extremely tough to know which internal people you should trust. In my experience, while many mistakes stem from failing to listen to internal experts, others stem from listening to colleagues who are dead certain yet utterly wrong. Your mission is to surround yourself with a diverse team whose credibility is well established and who aren\u2019t afraid to disagree with you\u2014respectfully but, when necessary, firmly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Find trusted partners outside the company.<\/em> <\/strong>This is a corollary of acknowledging what you don\u2019t know and being cautious about who you trust internally. Your peers, direct reports and even your bosses will often be inclined to tell you what you want to hear rather than share uncomfortable truths you need<\/em> to hear. This problem only gets worse as you become more senior in an organization. That\u2019s why trustworthy outside voices who understand your challenges are valuable. Consider reaching out to former mentors, teachers, members of your board or friends at other companies (as long as you\u2019re not sharing material nonpublic information, of course). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hold two truths at once.<\/em> <\/strong>Former GE CEO Jeff Immelt often refers to the two essential truths that leaders must hold at the same time: Things can always get worse, yet there are always huge opportunities. Be wary if you find yourself believing only one of the two. Relentless pessimism will bring everyone around you down, but relentless optimism will make people question your grasp of reality. As Ecclesiastes, \u201cthe preacher,\u201d wrote (and Ernest Hemingway titled one of his books): \u201cThe sun also rises.\u201d No matter how good things are now, prepare for a challenging future. And no matter how bad things are now, take heart that bad times don\u2019t last forever.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch where you spend your time, because the people who report to you are watching<\/strong>.<\/strong> <\/em>There\u2019s no clearer way to signal to everyone what you consider important than how you spend your days. No matter what adversity you\u2019re facing at any moment, you still control your own calendar. Others will try to seize chunks of it against your will, perhaps literally, by sending unsolicited calendar invitations. Find the courage to push back and block time for whatever activities will create the most impact. For instance, if your best leverage comes from talking with your people, make it a priority to protect time on your calendar for critical interactions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Be mindful of the difference between skill and luck<\/strong>. <\/strong><\/em> I\u2019ll bet there have been times in your career when you succeeded because you were highly qualified, with the skills to make a valuable contribution to an organization. And there have probably been other times when you were simply lucky to be in the right place at the right time. The first thirty or so people hired at Google became wealthier than they could possibly imagine simply by holding on tight during that rocket launch. But their inordinate wealth had little connection to their contributions, no matter how valuable they were. I like to say that it\u2019s better to be lucky than good, and it\u2019s even better to be both. It will greatly help your perspective if you can acknowledge times when your luck mattered more than your skills. If nothing else, it will bring an awareness that the things you did during your lucky moments are not necessarily the playbook you should copy in the future. You actually have no idea if those previous actions were the ideal things to do in those situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ask yourself if you\u2019d rehire yourself today for your current job.<\/em> <\/strong>I learned this concept from Stitch Fix founder Katrina Lake. She told my class that every year or two she asked herself and her leadership team: \u201cIf you were hiring for your job today, would you hire yourself? Are you the best person for the role now, rather than when you first got the job? If you\u2019re no longer the best person, what are you going to do about it?\u201d Such conversations are a powerful way to drive personal and professional development. But beware that they can be quite uncomfortable, especially if someone was outstanding when they reached their current position but now needs new skills for changing times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Stanford neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky stirred up a flurry of conversations with his 2023 book Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will<\/em>. His thesis is that we humans don\u2019t really understand the \u201cwhy\u201d of most of our actions and decisions. What we consider free will is, he argues, some combination of instincts driven by evolution and chemical triggers. For instance, he reduces falling in love not to a magical spark of connection with someone else\u2019s personality, intelligence or even physical attractiveness, but to how much we might simply enjoy another person\u2019s smell. (For the record, I really like how my wife smells. But the coefficient of that variable is quite small compared to the many other attributes that have drawn me to her for three decades.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if Sapolsky is right that we underestimate the impact of evolutionary biology\u2014the extent to which we\u2019re guided by subconscious imperatives to do whatever will help us survive and reproduce\u2014 I remain a stubborn believer in free will. My main counterargument: If there\u2019s no free will, why would anyone choose to be a teacher? If everyone\u2019s outcomes and decisions were predetermined, teachers would have very little impact on students, which I know<\/em> isn\u2019t true. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of us who stick with this profession see it as a higher calling\u2014a deeply satisfying opportunity to give students the tools they need to be successful and to make a difference to their families, communities, companies and countries. This sense of a higher calling also applies to sports coaches. Consider basketball icon Doc Rivers, whom the NBA named one of the 15 greatest coaches in the league\u2019s history. Interviewed for a documentary, Rivers said: \u201cSome of the advice when I first got started was wrong. I was told, \u2018Don\u2019t get too close to [players] because some of them will let you down.\u2019 Get close to them! Some do let you down, but so what? Your job is to coach them and make them better players, better people and better teammates. How to be tough, how to be compassionate, how to be a good winner and how to be a good loser. . . . I always tell them, \u2018I am not going to coach you to who you are. I am going to coach you to who you should be someday.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Rivers, I embrace the joy of helping people become the best possible versions of themselves. And I believe my students have the free will to become whatever sorts of leaders they choose to be. Kind or bombastic? Empathetic or hard-assed? Ambitious or lazy? Working humbly to improve the world, or trying loudly and selfishly to grab the spotlight? The type who arranges for an NFL Hall of Famer to visit a sick employee, or the type who challenges a rival to fight in a cage match? All of those options and many more are open to them after learning about systems leadership\u2014and to you, too, dear reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At least for now, science can\u2019t conclusively resolve my debate with Sapolsky one way or the other. Nevertheless, I urge you to join me in believing in free will, now that you\u2019ve encountered system leaders who have intentionally chosen how to steward their organizations. I hope you will remind yourself that how you act and react at any given moment is your choice. Your leadership style is not preordained, no matter what your mentors once taught you or what your bosses modeled early in your career. <\/p>\n\n\n\nRemember: You Have Free Will <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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