Prefer to read leaders letter 70 online - Read Here
Dear Leaders, Happy Monday.
Thanks for reading leaders letter 70 today.
For a recent keynote presentation, I created a dedicated list of fears leaders go through and stack ranked those fears.
When I create leadership lists and content for larger presentations, I always run it through a group of c-suite connections who then suggest what they are going through.
One of the agreed-upon biggest fears leaders had was the fear of their discipline moving on ahead of them.
This is something I know many department heads struggle with, you have team management, getting your work done, being an executive and then juggling the work admin.
I recently spoke to a group of Product and Marketing leaders and when I raised the fear of being left behind, many had not considered it but almost all admitted they hadn’t been in a place to keep on top of the latest moves.
Losing Subject Matter Expertise?
One of the biggest challenges for department heads is how to be the best department heads (ensuring the right work is being delivered + internal politics), and how to keeping on top of your industry and the movements.
This is one of the juggles many professionals go through and is rarely discussed.
How do you know how to prioritise, keep up and lead from the front with so many challenges? Hint, collaboration and internal training and coaching from your team and those around you.
The Question For You To Ponder This Week:
How far removed from your discipline are you and how do you intend to get back on track? Or do you believe you are serving the team best by being removed?
Actionable Recommendations:
Something I recommend is to have monthly sessions where you discuss the industry changes with your department, what those in your market and importantly outside of your market are rolling out and how they did this.
For your own personal development, I would recommend you create a list of five news sources you trust and create a list to block out time to keep up to date with their content, if not daily then weekly.
Lastly, always have an ongoing and updated inspiration board/wiki/note to help you (and the team) rethink problems and be inspired by what others are doing and how you could apply this to your business.
Thanks for reading today and have a great week,
Danny Denhard
Helpful Resources
Can you lead as a department head as a non-subject matter expert?
The difference between vision, mission, strategy and tactics
Read or watch my recent presentation
https://focus.business/blog/fanclubs-community-tribes-herds/