ready?  it’s not about you, it’s what happens through you. at first, this truth can seem a little counterintuitive.  after all, you’ve made it this far because of one person: you.  your grades, your test scores, and your extracurricular activities.  your analysis, your plan, and your strategy.  for decades you have been taught, celebrated, and rewarded for your individual performance.  but a true leader’s job is not to “do”; instead, his job is to influence, coach, train, motivate, celebrate, and inspire the people he leads.

so while the work must get done, the direct result does not come from the energy the leader pours into the project but from the energy the leader pours into his people.  while this is perhaps a simple concept to understand, putting it into practice can prove much more difficult because it often requires different behaviors and skills from what got you there in the first place.  nevertheless, the benefits of adopting this philosophy are well worth it.  here are three benefits that immediately come to mind:

1. you will see more growth in and loyalty from the people you lead as you help them become great
2. you will have more impact on the problem you are trying to solve.  leveraging twenty people with different talents will typically yield better results than any one individual alone
3. you will free yourself from the details and minutia of the job, which will allow you to focus on the larger picture

i encourage you to try it on for a week.  before you respond to the email, decide who leads the pitch, write the deck,  or walk into the office you should mumble to yourself one time, “it’s not about me, it’s what happens through me”  and see what happens.