Want to become a manager / leader? Read this.
4 Million Dollars.
That's how much money one of our highest earning job seekers makes.
Sixty thousand dollars.
That's how much another one makes.
There's several factors that explain the difference, but here's one:
The higher earning candidate is a leader.
The lower earning candidate is an individual contributor.
A "leader" is responsible for delivering outcomes at work by getting a team that reports to them to be successful.
They own strategy but the team does the execution.
An "individual contributor" on the other hand delivers outcomes at work by doing the work.
They execute on the strategy the people they report to give them.
There's several skills one needs to build to become a leader.
Here's two of the most important ones:
1. The ability to create complex systems:
A complex system is a series of individual systems that work together to achieve an outcome.
For example, a car is a complex system.
It needs tires, an engine, a driver, and so on.
A tire is a simple system.
It lives within a complex system.
Leaders understand the individual systems needed to make larger systems function, whether it's sales, marketing, engineering, or another complex system.
They understand the people, processes, and technology pieces needed to make it achieve outcomes.
Want to be a leader?
Pick a function.
Then learn how to make the function drive outcomes without needing you to "do" any specific part of it other than putting it together and managing it.
2. The ability to influence other people:
Leaders are great at getting people to do things.
If you work for a great leader, you might think "Wow I feel a lot of autonomy in my work" or "Wow I like my job"
If you don't, you might think the opposite.
A great leader is effective at making their subordinates "feel" excited about work and therefore great at doing things.
Want to be a leader?
Learn how to influence your boss.
If you can learn how to get your boss to do things you want, then you'll know you've built the skillset.
And once you've built the skillset, the first thing you can do is influence them to let you build a team.
Questions? Reply!