Читать книгу Leading from the Middle - Scott Mautz - Страница 16

Leading from the middle might be rife with tension, but it also means you're in the thick of things, where the real action is. Your job is to embrace constant contradiction, revel in it, and know that thriving in environments of natural conflict is a valued skill in and of itself. When it comes to environments of conflict, you can shirk, shrink, or shine. Choose the latter to climb the ladder.

More reframing insights follow.

1. You're not squeezed in the middle; you have the unique opportunity to impact in all directions. There's no position quite like it.

2. Instead of getting frustrated that you can't specialize when you're in the middle, which makes it difficult to grow your craft, view the action in the middle as your craft. Redefine success as having mastery over nothing except knowing you must know enough of everything, which takes a special breed to do well.

3. Home builders need permission on everything, business builders don't. So stop asking for permission on everything. Expand your authority within reason. For example, align objectives with your boss upfront, and if your intended action will serve the objective, act, don't ask.

4. Sure, you're in a pressure cooker, but you can release one of the valves—the pressure you put on yourself. If you're focused on constant learning and growth, on becoming a better version of yourself each day and not comparing to others, on chasing authenticity instead of approval, pressure becomes an enabler, not a disabler.

5. Know that ongoing conflict is essential to producing the best work. And you have the opportunity to harness conflict for maximum effect. For instance, I always found that our team produced the best ideas the fastest when we engaged in healthy debate, not when everyone agreed quickly. That's something you can facilitate (you'll get help on that in Chapter 3).

6. The reconciling and reprioritizing habits you're building in the middle (side effects of continually dealing with conflict) will serve you at the top, and everywhere else. More so than any other habits you forge.