Page 95 - Free Yourself From

78 It’s Not a Glass Ceiling, It’s a Sticky Floor

6. Focus on the things that matter. Identify the things that
you do that bring the most value to your organization,
stakeholders, and customers. Decide what work you really
need or want to do (the work that gives you visibility and
showcases your leadership) and delegate the rest.

7. Let go. Develop and rely on your team. Executives develop
their people so they are able to do less of the routine work
and spend more of their time on planning, guiding, and
attending to the strategic aspects of the business. Once
you’ve gotten better at really delegating to your team, work
on a development plan that will allow them (or select
people among them) to take on more of the tasks at hand.

8. Make the hard decisions. If you are picking up slack because
an employee really is a poor performer, don’t ignore the fact
that you made a bad hire or got stuck with dead weight.
Address the performance issue by holding the employee more
accountable and even letting them go if you have to. It’s
tough, but you’re taking responsibility for making sure the
people around you can deliver to the business.

Letting Go and Putting Your Abilities to Their Best Use

Pulling yourself free of the perfectionist sticky floor is a matter of
shifting your point of view. You might feel that letting go of your
high standards means slacking off. But it’s not. It’s putting as much
energy and attention into work as you ever have, but putting your
time to better use. You will be addressing and living up to your stake-
holders’ expectations rather than your own. You’ll be stretching your
muscles and growing instead of hurrying to stand still. And you’ll be
leading instead of merely doing. These are all things worthy of your
energy and ability, don’t you think?