Little things that go a long way: Context

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Leadership is a lifestyle.

It’s the sum of all the habits that you consciously practice everyday in order to be a good leader (the micro) weighted against the impact you’ve made on the overall mission (the marco).

In this series, we’re going to explore what we can support you with – the micro. All the little things that take work and practice, the habits of a high performing leader.

Part 2 – Context

I was reminded by a good friend about the magic we sometimes want in leadership. The “just do what I want!” magic we think we can wield over people and the “don’t you know what’s in my head?” mind reading ability we believe should be inherent in our people.

I’m laughing as I write this. I would never want that power of making any one person do exactly what I want. When I’m at my best, I appreciate the challenge of collaborating to a better outcome by letting go of what I want. When I’m at my worst,

I can default to wishing I had that magic.

But really, the magic is in context and shared intention. It allows you to offer depth to your vision, gain you the engagement and buy-in needed to be successful, and create the shared purpose to make it exceptional. If you haven’t seen Daniel Pink’s book summary on the value of this in human behaviour check out the 6 min summary.

If we run past the context, we assume that we have sufficient trust with this person and that they will do the task without resentment – that’s rare. Think of the relationships you have now with the best people in your life. How long have you had those relationships? Years at a minimum, but probably more like decades. It’s with those people you can ‘get away with’ asking something of someone without question. When the task is done, they know you will offer an explanation, context, and appreciation.

So, in a working relationship, what you really want is to get to that kind of relationship. One of full trust, shared purpose, and mutual respect. That takes work, but it doesn’t have to be hard work. Even though it may feel slower in the moment, offer the context and everything you think you know and understand about the request you’re making – they why.

• • Why is this request important to your shared goals, the team or the company?

• • Why might it be helpful to that individual in their own development and growth?

When you can offer these few bits of context attached to the request to run a report, fill in a form, hire a person, etc. the level of trust, engagement, and shared understanding increase exponentially. It’s the ease of this simple offer that will build miles of good will.

The opportunity then, whenever you need to task someone with a project or share an update, is to have a great conversation that enables you both to share what you’re feeling and thinking to learn more about each other, so that you can build stronger relationships.

I understand the challenge in the moment. The need to execute quickly and all the feelings of that comes with pressure, that the time it takes to do this may feel impossible, luxurious, and unattainable, But I’d offer that the more you practice, the faster and more effective you’ll be. And the easier it becomes to drive to that outcome as a result. Who doesn’t want that magic?!

Sometimes we just need to slow down or pause, and remember to give ourselves the gift of time to get there.