How to Lead, 5th Edition

Chapter 11

Find your role

The more senior you become, the more ambiguous your role becomes. If you are a junior sales person it is clear what you have to do. You will have clear sales targets that you have to meet. As you move up into management, fog slowly descends. As a manager you will have multiple goals. It becomes clear that you cannot deliver them all by yourself. This means you have to build a team to make things happen for you. But if you have a great team that delivers the results for you, how do you add any value. What is the point of your job?

As an example, we will use Ronald Reagan. By repute he did not work hard, not at least by the standards of most presidents who are in a very demanding role. He found plenty of time for ...