Many people used to talk about being a director; I would rather talk about being an enabler.
If you are ever privileged enough to reach a situation where you have responsibility for a group of people, whatever that group of people might be:
- Boys' football team
- Scout group
- Church choir
- Not-for-profit that operates locally
- Large organisation with 1000 employees
- Dental practice
- Family
Whatever that organisation or group might be, if you have the opportunity to take a leadership role (again, whatever that might be), your job is to be an enabler.
The role of the enabler is in the name, it is to enable people to be the best version of themselves, it is to help them remove roadblocks that they can't see, it is to help them grasp opportunities that they have missed, it is to give them the confidence to have a go, it is to encourage them to 'ask for forgiveness, not permission', it's to watch them toddle and fall down and skin their knees and get back up, to watch them learn and then flourish and then become something extraordinary.
There is no such thing as extraordinary people; there are only ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, but in order to have the confidence to try to do extraordinary things, you must be enabled.
The enabler understands entirely and instinctively the concept of servant leadership; it's not for you, it's for those who come after you.
We never truly own anything, do we? We never truly have anything, we are a shepherd, a custodian, someone who has the extraordinary joy of seeing something build while enabling other people to be the best that they can, the best builders, visionaries, or executors of a project only to see it come to life for them and then to move on and to enable some more, to enable us to build a pyramid from foundations that rise from under the ground to a peak high up into the sky.
But the enabler's job is not for them, it is "To save the shire for everyone else".
Once you see that, once you move away from 'I am the director', it's a privilege to be an enabler and watch your organisation, your football team, or your family fly.
For those of you who followed this blog for a long time, our Mustangs football team finished up last year on a Sunday in the summer, having lost one league game in the final league we participated in. We merged into a Saturday team called the Rebels, and I became the coach there.
Last Thursday, the Rebels won the league again for the 2nd year in a row. We lost two league games in 2 years.
From a group of people who 2 years ago were not together to a group of people who became the most extraordinary team not because I know anything about football, and not because Tim, my co-coach and brilliant genius at football, knows how to win the league but because 2 years ago we decided that what we would do is remove the roadblocks, create a little culture, and enable. We created a team it turned out that couldn't lose.
It was quite extraordinary.
Cheers Rebels, chapeau
Blog Post Number - 4168