“On the field you come into sync with your teammates and coaches and together you achieve something you could never do on your own.” Tom Brady
Trying to keep pace with the boss? I wish you well. I spent a 27-year career in the U.S. Army trying to achieve that. I tried like mad to get inside my boss’s head and to do my best to keep pace, even get ahead of him or her. Sometimes I nailed it. Sometimes I missed completely. I’ll share some tips to help you in this blog but first to its title. Every day in countless organizations, a group of leaders assembles around the top leader such as the CEO receiving guidance and adding to their ‘to do’ list. The best leaders (which also means they are the best followers) latch on to every word their boss speaks searching for specified (clearly stated) or implied (less obvious yet equally important) tasks. (See a previous blog on this topic). Leaders receive guidance and turn it into action. A task such as, “create a policy for the use of the company vehicle,” will immediately be owned and actioned by a leader. He or she may delegate all or parts of the task to another subordinate or team, but they themselves see it through to completion. The task will remain top-of-mind for the subordinate leader until it is complete. Their boss who assigned the task has moved on. The challenge is to keep pace.
Those leaders who have built (and lead) a good team of subordinate leaders to take (and complete) work from them are able to serve their organizations best. They can do the thinking, strategizing, engaging with external stakeholders, and checking on people (to name a few) required of their position. This does not mean task overload. That will backfire. Those subordinate leaders who strive to keep pace and get ahead of their boss will know that once the ‘company vehicle policy’ is assigned, the boss has moved on. These subordinate leaders will indeed, maintain focus on that which has been assigned but they will keep their radar on for other words or signals which indicate where the boss’s head is. There are a few effective ways to do this…
