What’s in your “Leadership Container?”
Leaders and entrepreneurs don’t need to be great at everything but the list of things they need to be good can be long. It can be hard to figure out what to pay attention to and where to spend one’s time.
In a recent coaching session, a client worked on scoping what she should be working on. She thought of everything she had on her plate and started to draw a picture and break it down into categories that were meaningful to her – in this case, personal development, team leadership, key objectives and relationships.
As it came together, she said “It’s like a container - whatever is in the container is what I am working on.” We worked on this over a number of sessions, and the concept evolved.
Define Your Leadership Container
Try it out to see how it can help you.
Draw a series of circles that lay out the activities, processes, contributions, development areas, goals you are involved with. Have a look at the last few weeks of your calendar to get some ideas.
If you are unsure of where to place it or if it is a shared responsibility, place it on a boundary.
Look forward – think about the future and what you want to be doing
Look within – think about what should you be developing, ask others
If you have insights on what you can delegate or stop doing, move them outside the container accordingly
Color-code the circles to reflect categories that you see emerging
Draft in hand, now you can:
Share It: Review it with others. Communicate any decisions you have made. Have your colleagues produce theirs.
Compare It: Check your calendar in two weeks to see if you are living by it. Come back to it in a month and make any necessary adjustments.
Evolve It
Continue to evolve your leadership container to:
Focus your efforts, and by extension, those of your team and colleagues
Balance the amount of time spent on current work and the future
Make decisions about what to stop doing
Make time for personal development
