Just read the most awesome article I have had on ice in my inbox for ages. I kept it because my initial skim had given me the heads-up to read it, but I only just got to it this morning and wow! VERY insightful!
Basic big idea – leaders are people who ought to be mostly focused on the future and what is next, not so much on the present and what is now. Unfortunately, with all the technology that constantly keeps us connected, we tend to find ourselves dragged into the present, dealing with too many real-time issues, and in essence increasingly beginning to do the work of the people we are meant to be leading and growing, actually getting in the way of that process by being over-involved in decision-making and execution. This creates a self-perpetuating spiral of more activity as the people on the coalface become less and less capable or confident of doing the job, and require more and more of your attention as a leader. So, instead of helping to develop and coach and teach them, you end up doing more and more for them, and therefore have less and less time to do what you ought to be doing.
I think this article is amazingly insightful, and more than timely for me as I’ve been discovering exactly this in my own life recently, and have begun to reshape the ways in which my time and energy are invested.
An excellent read. i commend it to you…
[http://www.bluepointleadership.com/books-article/newsletter/2008/Feb.htm#article1]