The point of your job isn't that you need to create a slide deck, a web page, a robust client portal, a LinkedIn post, or a [your-deliverable] – it's about making a difference. What will change because of your actions?
The difference I aim to make – this is meta – is in helping leaders and teams clarify and align toward the difference they seek to make.
“I am here today to cross the swamp, not to fight all the alligators.” - Rosamund Stone Zander, The Art of Possibility
It’s easy to get sidetracked. You’re crossing the swamp and have to get past some alligators. Maybe over time you become really good at fighting alligators (winning is fun!) and forget why you’re there in the first place. Or you hire expert alligator fighters who realize they’ll be out of a job if you finally cross the swamp, so they keep you focused on alligators. Multiply that by hundreds or thousands. Now you’re leading an organization.
Some leaders have a strategic right-hand to help them with the big picture: Chief of Staff, Strategic Advisor, Director of Strategy.
I’m telling this story because I’m looking for this type of role with people who want my kind of help. A role that weaves together my strengths of strategy and human-centered leadership.
I’m drawn to Chief-of-Staff roles because many of the obstacles that I’ve uncovered as a leader and strategist are internal. The-call-is-coming-from-inside-the-house problems. They are complex, deeply embedded, personal, and impossible to outsource. Like when the alligator fighters aren’t sure how to evolve their skills.
Great strategy takes all obstacles into consideration, so those uncomfortable internal challenges cannot be ignored. Yet, people do. Teams do. Leaders do. All. The. Time. In part, because it’s vulnerable, uncomfortable work. But it’s also transformational. We'll suffer a little discomfort and be better for it.
I love strategy, but as they say, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” I want to build better strategies by helping leaders become better leaders. It’s the most important work I can think of doing right now.