The biggest mistake leaders make is to think it is all about them. They believe that success or failure is a direct result of their behavior rather than a team effort. Show me a successful leader, and I will show you a person surrounded by talented individuals who each excel in their roles. While it is customary practice in this country to celebrate the individual, no one builds a high-performing organization by themselves. This doesn’t mean that the leader isn’t an essential ingredient; however, he/she needs other ingredients to complete the recipe.
We all have strengths and weaknesses. There are situations in which we will naturally thrive and others where we will inevitably struggle. A leader’s job is to maximize the organizational benefits of their talents while minimizing the impact of their weaknesses. The best way to mitigate individual limitations is to seek out others who can supplement our deficiencies. Visionary leaders often need colleagues who excel at focus and implementation. Detail-oriented people typically require team members who encourage them to be more decisive and think creatively. Someone who has outstanding people skills may lose sight of harsh business realities. If you’ve worked for a while, you’ll see that your favorite leaders often knew their weaknesses and dealt with them instead of ignoring or overcompensating for them.
In addition, there are limits to what any one person can physically accomplish. You can only personally sell so much or manage a finite number of clients. No individual holds a monopoly on clever ideas. As smart as you may be, you won’t have the requisite knowledge to effectively address every issue that pops up. Moreover, there are only so many hours in a day. Anyone who pushes too hard for too long will burn out and start making bad decisions. The first growth roadblock for most businesses is when they’ve exhausted the professional capability of the leader. Sadly, many companies don’t progress beyond this point due to ego issues and/or short-sightedness.
It is not the role of a leader to personally overcome every obstacle that comes their way. Their job is to build organizational resilience through teamwork, shared commitment, and sacrifice by leveraging the company’s talent base, establishing critical operational redundancies, and ensuring the continuous pursuit of common objectives despite obstacles. If you take a prolonged vacation, the business shouldn’t fall apart. Employees shouldn’t panic at the first sign of a crisis and look to your strong leadership to solve all the challenging problems. Putting yourself at the center of the organizational universe and thinking of others as merely existing in your orbit is the biggest mistake you can make. Instead, see yourself as part of a constellation of stars serving a higher purpose.