Leading with Let Them

Leading with Let Them is a separate guide on how to apply The Let Them Theory in leadership. The guide is published separately from the book and co-authored with David Gerbitz, an executive coach who previously held senior leadership roles at Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Qurate Retail Group.

Key recommendations:
🔸 Lead yourself (Let Me). Leader defines the mood of the team: "If you’re not managing your own emotions, mindset, and reactions, you can’t expect your team to manage theirs."
🔸 Choose inspiration over micromanagement (Let Them). Let Them means start creating the conditions where the team can grow: let them think, decide, take ownership and accountability of their work.
🔸 Choose influence over control (Let Me). Leadership is about building connection, trust and understanding. Recognize our triggers, test our beliefs, pause before responding, lead by example.
🔸 Focus on outcomes (Let Me). Provide a clear vision of what should be achieved (the “what” and the “why”) and support the team on their way when needed.
🔸 Reframe mistakes as growth opportunities (Let Me).
🔸 Be personable and present (Let Me). Give people our time and our attention and encourage the team to do the same for each other. Put away the phone and focus on the moment.
🔸 Be consistent (Let Me). Consistency is a base of certainty, certainty is the base of safety. Safe environment is a foundation of successful teams.

As you can see, most of the items relate to the Let Me part. This highlights that a leader should control and adjust their own behavior to make the team effective.
In addition to the main principles the guide contains practical recommendations like do's and don'ts. So it can be really helpful when applying those principles in real life.

From my perspective, the guide is very useful and it's definitely a must-read for leaders, especially those who are just starting their leadership career.
When I read it I realized it describes many things I already do in practice: sometimes intuitively, sometimes based on experience. I just know it works and it reflects my leadership style. And now I have a very good reference with this knowledge to recommend.

#softskills #leadership