Team or ego
Are my actions feeding my team or my ego?
👋 Howdy! Claire here, CEO of Canopy. It’s a short week over here in the U.S., and so I thought I’d share a useful reminder for myself as a leader that I’ve been revisiting lately. I’ll be back in full force with long-form, original writing in next week. Hope you enjoy this short ’n helpful tip in the meantime! 💚
Of all the leadership tips, “leaning into your strengths” may be one of the most frequently cited.
But have you ever considered that doing what you’re good at is in fact hurting your team, not helping?
For example, let’s say that you are really good at getting things done.
When you were an individual contributor, this was something you were often praised for. So, now as a leader, you are doing the same thing: Pushing ahead and making things happen.
Unfortunately, this also means people overly depend on you to get things done. If you take a vacation, for instance, productivity completely stops. People feel stuck because you were leaning into your strengths too much.
Now, you must to ask yourself: Are my actions feeding my team, or my ego?
Am I doing things just because I think I'm good at them, or am I trying to help my team get better?
We can’t, and shouldn’t, constantly default to our own strengths. Otherwise, our team will never learn how to cultivate those strengths themselves.
Instead, build up your team members' confidence and capabilities so they don’t have to overly rely on you.
And ask yourself if what is more at stake here is your team – or your ego.
Listen to the free audio version of this tip in Canopy here:
💚 If you’ve been enjoying reading my original writing here, I wanted to share two other ways to gain even deeper leadership insights…
(1) Receive free daily leadership tips when you sign-up for Canopy (and receive them on your phone if you download our free iOS app along with it). Learn more about Canopy here 🌿
(2) Work with me personally and our team to implement a custom leadership training program for your internally-promoted managers, based on our past decade of research. Learn more about Canopy for Teams here 🏔️