Becoming an Invisible Leader
If you’re a leader in an organization, your ultimate goal
should be becoming invisible. Being
invisible as a leader means that your organization can run smoothly and
efficiently without you. Your people are
given the resources and authority to make, and carry out, decisions. You trust your people to do the right thing,
ethically and morally. You trust their
competency.
Because of your leadership, the people in your organization
grow and thrive. Of those closest to
you, any one of them could take the helm of the organization at any given
moment and keep it running smoothly.
This means that you’re free;
Free to be creative and innovative for the future of the
organization. Free to invest in
relationships that will further power the organization. Free to collaborate at the highest levels. And, because you’re free from having to grant
permission to perform the day-to-day tasks that once consumed your time, you’re
free to spend more time with your loved ones.
How do you become invisible?
Former Aetna CEO, Mark Bertolini, lays the plan out like this:
The first level is
your employees hate you.
The second level is
your employees fear you.
The third level is
your employees praise you.
But with the
fourth level of leadership, you’re invisible because your organization takes
care of itself,
Bertolini says. “That’s the legacy I want to leave: An
organization of people that get it, they make it better, they keep it going. I
don’t need to tell people what to do.”
Many executives say they want this “Fourth Level of
Leadership”, but their ego gets in the way. It’s as if when they aren’t needed to keep
the company functioning day-to-day, that they have lost their value to the
organization. What a mistaken
belief! How limiting and shortsighted
this belief is! But, it’ there and with
so many key executives.
However, that’s all it is…a belief. A belief that someone
programmed in your mind or that you learned from previous experience. And beliefs can be changed. I know.
I help people make significant, life-changing transformations every day
with amazing, tangible results!
Maybe today is the day to contact me, because I help make the good GREAT and the
great EXTRAORDINARY!
Dr. Edward Lewellen is an expert in creating methodologies for people to learn to use their mind; their beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors, and put them back in control of their lives and become top-producers. He is a Master Executive Coach, leadership and sales expert, and keynote speaker for some of the largest global organizations.
Author of:
Life Mastery: The Fully Functional Life
