This is the fourth post in an ongoing series about the transition from maker to manager1.
I still remember the one of the first descriptions of leadership I heard from a successful business person that I instinctively felt was wrong. I was young, early in my career, and the CEO who ran the company I worked at had joined a meeting about a project assigned to my boss’ team.
I can’t remember the specifics of the project, but I do know that it had encountered some sort of difficulty and the CEO was stepping in to help get things back on track. Seeing the primary leader of the business ’get their hands dirty’ with the team, especially alongside a young, inexperienced person like me was encouraging and felt right somehow—a salve for the notion that executives use hierarchy to shield themselves from the actual work being done.
Towards the end of the meeting, though, the CEO said this:
Continue reading From Maker To Manager: Making Yourself UnnecessaryIt’s not good that I’m in this meeting. My goal is to make myself unnecessary, so you need to figure this out on your own next time.
1. You can see all of the posts in the series, From Maker to Manager, here.