Leadership is the continuous act of balancing WHAT with HOW

Results = Direction  x  Action

I want to talk about this misconception that leadership is very much about the visions and the direction going forward, which sometimes seems to take a bit too much focus from the reality of what leadership is in the essence.

I think the objective part – the visions etc - is one part which is all about WHAT we are aiming to achieve, and I think the other equally important part that sometimes gets overlooked in this discussion is the leadership role when it comes to HOW to make things happen.

Leaders are not the people who make things happen themselves and do the practical stuff. That’s why they are leaders and that’s why they have experts and people around them to work with in their teams.

But the key role that leaders have in that context is to ENABLE the team – help enable the team – to move forward.

That implies working with the roadblocks and help remove those, it implies making sure that the team has the right competencies, get these in place, and manage the resources: The time, the money and people in the right way.

All in all to orchestrate that they are working in a way that drives progress towards WHAT you aim to achieve.

This is something which is not static.

You cannot in one day say that now we fixed having a clear picture of WHAT to achieve, so next day we are going to fix the HOW. These two elements need continuously to be balanced. And it is exactly the balance between the two which in essence is what leadership is about.