What's Holding You Back From Being An Amazing Leader?

Are you, right now, the most amazing leader you could be?

If the answer is no, what's holding you back? Here are some frequently mentioned barriers:

• lack of political skill/connections
• my boss is a toxic leader or an ineffective leader
• my team is a disaster
• organizational drama
• pace of change is so steep that I can't be strategic, I'm always fighting fires
• I can't improve my skills because I can't go off-line or don't have budget for training

For the sake of perspective, these rationales could be said about any leader at any time in history in any organization. We're not saying this to make you feel badly about yourself, we're saying it because it's true and these barriers are real.

And, because it's true and these barriers are real, we're going to strategize with you about creating accelerators to becoming the amazing leader you could be.

To start, think of saving money. You're spending money right now on energy because you have things -- "energy vampires" -- plugged into your outlets: chargers, washing machine, refrigerator, lights, etc. Separately, you have subscriptions that are plugged into you: streaming entertainment services, monthly donations to charitable or civic causes (e.g. public media), your wireless service provider, mortgage or car loan or student loan or credit card, etc. 

We're not saying that you shouldn't have conveniences or that you should not be charitable, and please do not unplug your refrigerator on a daily basis. Also, you need to pay your monthly loans and credit card balances. The point is that you have costs. They subtract money from your bank account. 

So it is at work. Your cybersecurity function has reports (cost), it has hardware or AI or vendor services (cost), it has meetings (cost), it has misalignment with revenue producing parts of the organization (cost). As a leader, these costs come out of your budget and your time.

The other side of the ledger contains inputs that add to your function: team members, budget, integration of your cybersecurity processes into organizational processes.

As a leader, you want to understand your costs and inputs, and then minimize your costs. It's a strategic approach known as addition through subtraction.

The management guru JP Elliot frames it in terms of value proposition, priorities, and impact (parts of the following are direct quotations from JP's newsletter):

Your Value Proposition: 

How does your cybersecurity leadership role specifically add value to the organization?

(Get crystal clear on this foundation before making any decisions about what to keep or cut)

Your Priority Assessment:

What are the 2-3 most important priorities or projects you're focused on? Why do these matter most?

What are the 2-3 least important priorities or projects consuming your time? Why are these less critical?

How much time are you actually spending on your most important versus least important priorities?

Your Impact Analysis:

What would be the impact if you could cut your least important priorities in half or eliminate them completely?

Once you understand these three pieces, do addition through subtraction by eliminating, delegating, or automating:

Eliminate:

The key is to identify "ghost tasks." They are ghost tasks because at one point they were not ghosts at all. In fact, these ghost tasks were once valued, needed, and were just tasks.

However, as time passed, these tasks became less valuable, less visible, and finally crossed over into the afterlife as ghost tasks.

If you are spending time creating a report each month, emailing it off to a group of stakeholders, and then hear nothing back, then you have a ghost task on your hands.

Delegate:

What tasks or even parts of projects can you delegate to others?

​If you can't delegate responsibility for a task completely, can you shift your level of involvement in the task or when you are needed in the process?

Automate:

For routine and manual tasks, is there a way to automate them using AI or other technology?

You can't do this alone. Bring your manager along as you start focusing on what matters most and deprioritizing what matters less. This alignment is crucial for sustainable change.

Those two process steps -- understanding your value and addressing where you spend your time -- move you along the path to addition to subtraction because you have now managed your time better. You have stopped "spending" as much, if you like.

Now it's time to create more inputs; remember, this is like making more money. Do these three steps on a quarterly basis:

1. Start by listing all your current projects and initiatives, then rank them by strategic importance and time investment.

2. Next, try scheduling a 30-minute meeting with your manager to discuss your top 3 priorities and get alignment on what you can stop doing.

3. Finally, commit to eliminating one recurring meeting, one regular report, or one low-impact project that's consuming your time.

Now you've managed the drains on your time and your team, and you've boosted your impact as a strategic leader. 

The result? Less cost, more time back un your schedule, greater impact.

Amazing!

Ask us how we can help you be the amazing leader you could be.