From Managing to Leading

You’ve been successful at gaining clients and growing a stellar team while also functioning as head of human resources, chief revenue officer, head of client services and team lead. Your growth has positively affected your clients’ and your own financial health. But there comes a time when it’s impossible to do everything by yourself, and you must transition from managing everything to leading.

What Does That Mean to You?

I think of management as managing resources, as coordinating schedules, tasks and processes. You keep the balls rolling, focusing on the operations of the day ahead. I think of leadership as tapping into others’ motivations to mobilize those people to create change. Leading means having a vision, purpose and strategic goals. A leader thinks about the future.

“I think of leadership as tapping into others’ motivations to mobilize those people to create change.”

It’s exciting to lead a business, and yet this mindset and behavioral transition is hard for many business owners to accept. My client Angela wanted to create a big change in her business when she expanded into a new region. She was excited about new partnerships, new speaking engagements and new collaborations. Yet she resisted letting go of the details, which she’d been in for decades. She’d always been great at execution. If she let go of the details, she wondered, how would she show her value?

When the business of my client Liz started to burst at the seams, she realized she needed to unify her team and get out of the weeds. But she felt unprepared to share her vision, because she didn’t have words for it yet. She was in the rut of doing what was right in front of her, rather than stepping back so she could see the big picture and understand, strategically, the best use of her time.

There are a million reasons why you might want to lead, but do it all yourself, anyway. You know you can count on yourself. You can meet your high standards. Your clients count on you. Other people are messy and unpredictable, so why ruin things by relying more on others?

That’s a question for you to really contemplate. Why lead? Why not lead? What’s at stake? What might you lose? What might you gain? What might change when you empower more people? I’m always interested in hearing about a client’s willingness to create internal change that aligns to behavioral change. Often, we want a change, but we don’t want to change, ourselves. Many internal and external roadblocks will appear, but if you have a willingness to create change, then you’re more open to learning, adapting and seeking new growth, even when it’s hard.

First, I encourage you to be truthful about the changes you want in your business—and the changes you don’t want to make, and why. Surfacing all the reasons why you, personally, don’t want to give up the reins, is the first step to empowering yourself and others. For instance, you might want control of everything because that feels safe. You might not trust others’ skills. Or, worse, others might perform well, which makes you question your value.

Getting clear on your resistance will give it less power. You might become aware of your resistance five seconds before you were going to reject an associate’s offer to work on something, and then maybe you’ll take the contrary action. Awareness is the first step to making a change.

Then, put words to your purpose. Think about it: What does leading your business and your people mean to you? Often, this is about whom you impact, and what changes you create in the lives of those you serve. When you share the purpose of your business, you align yourself and your people to that purpose. That creates collective buy-in for the work you’re doing. It can also lead to more effective delegation, healthy feedback, willingness to meet expectations, and higher performance.

Next, I encourage you to share with your team that you’re going to be leading more and relying on them more. You might say, “I’m working on empowering the team to do work I normally would take on, and on creating a culture that’s more collaborative. If you see me reverting to old ways, please speak up.” This transparency shifts you from operating like an “I” to a “we.” Teams are interdependent. How is your team interdependent? 

Holding a Master of Organizational Psychology from Columbia University, Jessica Powers has helped various organizations create an enriched world through work. She is an executive coach, facilitator, culture and engagement enthusiast, and learning strategist whose work transforms organizations.