Max De Pree, CEO of Herman Miller and author of Leadership Is an Art, is both a leader, and an author about leadership. The fact that he could do both successfully gives him deep credibility for me. Last week Phil Anderson shared a quote from him about leadership: “The higher you get, the more amateur you become.” In 9 short words, De Pree crystallized one of the biggest dilemmas leaders face.
In almost all instances, success precedes promotion. In organizations, you are asked to do more by leading at a higher level once you’ve proven you are good at your current level. In life, you are inclined to reach for more when you feel some sense of mastery over your recent undertakings. In groups, one is sought out to take on more when one is seen as capable. And for most of us, we say yes because we feel, at some level, confident in our ability to tackle the new role in a proficient manner.
And then we land the new job, take on the additional responsibility, strike out into new territory. All that we knew in our last job is suddenly not enough. When we were doing the work, we may have been expert. Now that our role is seeing that the work gets done, but not necessarily by us, it requires more than the just knowing the technical aspects of the role. And per Max’s insight, the higher the level of leadership, the more you don’t know and can never possibly know. The CEO may have come up through finance, but an organization is much more than that. The entrepreneur may know how to code, but not have a clue about marketing. The community leader may have great organizational skills, but finds herself in entirely new space in using volunteers to accomplish the work.
As leaders are faced with this reality, they have two basic choices: to continue to rely on their technical skillset or to take on their amateur status.
Hanging on to your technical security blanket is a natural tendency, but is a tenuous approach. Leaders who do may tend to micromanage, because they know the space so well and have strong opinions about how to do the work. They are unable to step out of the comfort of being an expert and satisfaction of doing something well (and cleanly) into the messy work of leadership. They cling to doing the work rather than leading the work. And as such, they create a very low ceiling for themselves (one’s technical expertise only takes you so far). They also create low ceilings for those they lead – as they may be unable to “let go” and have others do the work for the fear of not doing it well, or correctly, or maybe even “their” way.
The other path is to summon up the courage to admit you are an amateur – both in leading at this level and at the breadth of work done in your area of responsibility. This is no small feat as we get concerned that this may show a vulnerability that undermines our credibility. I would suggest that leaders are much more vulnerable when they do not acknowledge and own this truth.
The leader that owns their amateur status takes these kinds of actions:
- They trust that others will deliver, even if as a leader they don’t know all the fine points.
- They are curious and in “learning” mode. They ask for others professional opinions and consider them fully.
- They look deeper and broader than just the execution of tasks to the running of the area.
- They are comfortable with others being more expert in certain areas – and respect and cultivate them to do so.
- They spend energy on leading and learning rather than controlling, pretending, or madly attempting trying to develop deep expertise in many areas.
- They are okay with not knowing it all – and they trust others to fill the gaps.
And perhaps these leaders know that the goal is not to be a technical expert – but to be a good leader. And that the bigger the leadership role, the more important that becomes.
