a quick activity for teeing up a leader’s most important task

This is a newsletter dedicated to leadership and growth, so it’s about time we bothered to ask the question, “What is it that leaders even do?” At bottom, my answer to this question is: Set meaningful goals for people and ensure they hit them. And being a really great leader means doing these two things while also constantly building others’ capacity to reach even more goals. Most of my time at work is spent coaching leaders to be better at one of those three things. 

I coach some people several times a week, others once a month, and I occasionally have clients who hire me for a single, one-off session with no follow-up. This last group forces me to ask myself, “What is the single highest-leverage leader behavior that would radically transform their team’s performance?” It’s shocking how often, across wildly different contexts, the answer is the same: A Recognition Frequency Tracker. 

More on that in next week’s post.

For now, consider: What was the last positive thought you had about somebody on your team?

Before reading further, text or email that person this thought. Take less than 60 seconds to send that message now. And, if it feels strange, feel free to blame it on this post (“I was just reading a blog, which triggered me to tell you: ….”)

[Do that now.]

Now ask yourself what downstream effects on that person’s performance you may see over the next week.

-Ben