Looks like work

A common myth of making it to the top of leadership is that you don't work, others do it all.   If you study leaders and what makes them great is that what they do looks like work, why, because it is.  They may not be running machines, answering phones or teaching class, but believe that what they do is work.

Take a principal, they lead the school yet do not typically do any teaching.  My father was a principal for nearly 15 years.  Most of the students, parents and teachers that I still see from that time frame only remember him as their principal.  For the 15 years prior to that time, however, he was a teacher and a coach.  The days were spent with hands on instruction, guidance, running plays, reviewing film, grading papers and ensuring the students received the knowledge he was entrusted to provide.  As principal, however, many onlookers may just see a man that sits in meetings, that is in his office pushing papers, working on a computer or traveling to seminars.  The reality, as we all know, is that his role was to lead.

The work of a leader does look different than most of the work done by their followers.  This work, may entail more strategic thinking downtime, dealing with personnel one-on-one, moving from one person or task quickly to another, and may include more meetings.  A day in a life of a leader, though, still consists of work that requires work ethic, integrity in thinking and action, and ultimately setting and keeping the course for all of those "doing" the detailed work. 

After nearly 20 years of being in leadership roles, I found myself and other leaders in the office doing traditional work less than those that I lead.  What I also find true is that the stress level and "mind thought time" is far greater.  The mind thought time is those moments where a leader dreams, creates, runs thoughts and ideas and plans through their mind.  This is work, and how do you know.  A leader has a focused look, spends time on it, and uses it to formulate strategy and actions for the team.  This time may look like day dreaming, I say...it looks like work.