Olympic Swimming pool underwater background.
“Stay in your lane”*
If you’re going for the gold, it’s great advice. If you’re the CEO, I suggest you splash about. I live in Silicon Valley where tech companies change the world faster than I can change my socks. Look around and you’ll find the headquarters of major players from Google to Tesla, from Cisco to Apple. This is where many of the big kids play. It seems like there’s a new startup every minute of every day and therein lies the problem.
Company leaders have the vision and drive to create products that change the world, but do we have the skills to get the absolute best out of our teams? I suggest that most of us don’t because we either can’t or won’t change lanes. We’re familiar with everything in our space and it can be scary to venture out to see what’s really going on. People may find out that we don’t know everything. Guess what? They already know that.
Subject Matter Expertise isn’t Everything
Just because we have the engineering, mechanical or administrative skills to provide the greatest widget or service in the world doesn’t mean we know everything there is to know about running a business. I’m a perfect example. I know a lot about managing people but I’m clueless when it comes to accounting. Like any good CEO, I have “people” to do the things I can’t do. However, like any good manager, I step outside of my lane and attempt to learn or at least understand what my bookkeeper does. I may not understand how to get the information into the accounting software, but I can recognize when something doesn’t look right and start to ask questions. Changing lanes allows us to grow as leaders (increase knowledge and skills), and to excel as managers (build strong relationships).
The Benefits of Changing Views
Leaving the comfort of our safety zone does a couple of things:
- Increases understanding of what’s happening under the hood of our business. We can recognize issues and make corrections.
- Allows us to connect with the people doing the real work by building relationships. Our teams see us as people and not just as the company
- Fosters communication and breaks down silos. If someone suddenly leaves, the work doesn’t come to a grinding halt
I could go on forever with this list, but you get the idea. As managers and leaders, we must understand our business; top to bottom. It doesn’t mean we have to do a deep dive to understand every nuance, but it does mean that we have to take an interest in more than spreadsheets and bottom lines. If you want to build strong teams, swim over to someone else’s lane and see how they do what they do. You just might learn a new stroke or two.
*Special shoutout to the incredible athletes of the 2020 Olympic Games