Why Leaders Do Not Need To Not Know It All
Why Leaders Do Not Need To Not Know It All
Great knowledge does not equal great leadership
As we move into the holidays, Spark will be taking a bitesized break. We’ll return on Thursday 4th January to welcome in the new year and help you start the next 12 months as leader you want to be.
Meantime I’d like to wish all of you a fabulous end to 2023 and a brilliant start to 2024.
Thank you as always for being a valued part of this wonderful growing community of readers and leaders.
Why Leaders Do Not Need To Not Know It All
A misconception that often plagues leaders, especially those in new roles, is the notion that they must know more.
It is natural to feel the pull to be more deeply sighted on what’s going on within your team or elsewhere.
And the question often arises: how much do you really need to know about the business and the detailed work of your team to be credible as a leader?
The challenge is that stepping into unfamiliar territory, especially when it is beyond your comfort zone, can naturally leave you feeling unsure of yourself and feeling like "I need to know more". And one effective way to gain confidence and competence is to invest heavily in building up your knowledge.
Building credibility is essential, and the insight that you do have can be pivotal in building trust. But a deep level of technical knowhow can prove a double edged sword, especially for leaders promoted from within the team - making it harder to delegate decisions and step back and step up.
The shift from being a functional leader who knows everything, to being a more senior leader, who needs to lead people whose roles you may or may not understand is not to be underestimated.
But the reality is that no leader, regardless of experience, has all the answers or knows everything.
Take my client Seb, for example. A year into his c-suite level leadership role, he shared with me, "Once I’ve had a better chance to learn what all the departments really do, I’ll feel much more confident." Surprisingly, Seb was already well-versed, yet he felt the perpetual need to know more.
The challenge with confidence is that it often defies logic. And for leaders it rarely correlates to a high level of knowledge.
Recognising that it is impossible to know everything, especially as a new senior leader, is a vital part of effective leadership.
Instead what great leaders recognise is the power in actively surrounding themselves with people who are smarter, and know more than, themselves. And of building strategic networks of trusted peers and experts who they can call on when they need them. Effective leaders listen well and they hone their skills in asking the right questions, using the answers to guide their decisions - setting direction, inspiring others, creating conditions for independent problem solving and making tough choices when they need to.
The key lies in discerning what you genuinely need to know, while recognising the impracticality of knowing every detail.
Because great knowledge does not equal great leadership.
Here are three things to help you do just that.
Reflect: There’s a difference between feeling the need to know everything, with consciously recognising that you need to learn about an area that previously hasn’t been on your radar and will give you credibility to perform your leadership role.
For outward facing core business roles, perhaps you might need to learn more about how internal operations work (e.g. finance, audit, HR) and vice versa.
Where are you currently feeling exposed by having a lack of knowledge?
What is driving this need?
What is your overarching goal?
The best way to support this newsletter is to share it with a friend. If you know another leader, colleague or peer who loves leadership, why not share it with them?
Learn: Leaders who are feeling out of their comfort zone can find themselves seeking more and more information in a quest to make them feel more confident.
What assumptions are you making about your current level of knowledge?
What advice would your mentor or peer give you?
Complete this sentence: I will feel confident in my level of knowledge when I believe that…
Focus: With limited headspace, prioritisation is essential. As a leader you will need to stay informed about your industries latest trends, challenges, tech and patterns. You will also need to know enough about the areas that interest your stakeholders so that you can delve deeply when needed.
Think about those you lead, your peers and stakeholders.
What information is it essential that you personally need to be sighted on? (And what matters most to your stakeholders?)
What isn’t essential but is important longer term to your professional development?
What is nice to know or simply interesting, but not immediately useful - and that can be deprioritised?
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