Letting Go

Phil Jackson is one of the most successful sports coaches of all time. Those of you who watched the Last Dance during lockdown last year will have seen him featured heavily. Phil was the Head Coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1989 to 1998, leading them to six NBA Championships. He has also written a book called Eleven Rings - the Soul of Success, setting out his philosophy and experiences of leadership. It is a fascinating read, not least as his approach is informed by a heady mix of humanistic psychology and native American philosophy.

In his book, Phil shares the following: “After years of experimenting, I discovered that the more I tried to exert power directly, the less powerful I became. I learned to dial back my ego and distribute power as widely as possible without surrendering final authority. Paradoxically, this approach strengthened my effectiveness as it freed me to focus on my job as keeper of the team’s Vision.”

Letting go is a key skill for a leader.

Why?

TIME

The quote above picks up on the first key reason. As a leader, your time is one of the most important assets you have. And this means that it is a very important asset to your organisation.

You have probably been working in your industry/sector/profession for quite some time. Which means that you have built up a significant skillset. The chances are that you can turn your hand to pretty much anything within your organisation. But therein of course lies the problem. Time spent on any task represents an opportunity cost. It follows that one of the most important aspects of leadership is to make sure that you are focusing your time on the right things. On the things that only you can do (with thanks to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella for this simple but brilliant phrase). Everyone will have their own understanding and belief of what this actually means (and for those of you who want to take a deeper dive into this, the six categories set out in this McKinsey article are a good starting point https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-mindsets-and-practices-of-excellent-ceos.) But there is no doubt that the tendency for most leaders, most of the time, is to get involved in areas that they should not be. Things that are too operational. Projects that are close to your heart and so you give in to the temptation to get into the weeds. Areas that you see as key and therefore feel you must lead on.

Note what Phil said however about not surrendering final authority. You can lead, without having to ‘do’. It’s also interesting to see how Phil articulated his key role - to be keeper of the Vision. Satya Nadella has described something similar. At the 2017 Fintech Ideas Festival, he shared the following: “Being CEO has taught me this - that two things perhaps matter the most: having a very clear sense of purpose or mission that gives the organisation real direction, and having a culture that allows you to go after that mission.”

OWNERSHIP

The second key reason for building the ‘letting go’ muscle relates to ownership. As you will imagine, there is a whole raft of academic literature and expert books looking at what motivates people in the workplace. Daniel Pink’s book Drive is a good place to start. One of the key elements that stands out is Autonomy. It’s human nature to want to be involved, and to want to feel a level of control and ownership. This drives a feeling of responsibility, all of which aligns towards performance.

One of the most popular mantras that I share in my coaching is “if you let them plan the battle, they won’t battle the plan.” It comes from a short but brilliant book on leadership called Piranhas in the Bidet by Phil Jesson*. This is one of those things that sounds obvious, but can be much harder to follow in practice. However, the rewards for doing so really are worth it. It may take longer to get to where you want to get to, but you will have brought many more people on the journey with you.

Those of you who follow sport may know of the tradition of the Captain’s run in rugby. Typically on the day before match day, this is a final training session where ownership and control is left entirely in the hands of the captain and leadership team within the squad. This is not random. It is done for just this reason. There are innumerable other examples within sport where the effectiveness of this ‘letting go’ has been demonstrated, from Alistair Brownlee’s triathlon coach Malcolm Brown having a seminal moment where he recognised how much more Alistair was giving when he had more control over his training schedule, right through to the GB Women’s hockey squad and their focus on giving the squad much more ownership, starting with their work around Vision and Values straight after London 2012. (And for those of you who don’t know, the squad went on to win Gold at Rio, a large part of which was put down to the culture within the squad, and the transfer of much of the ownership and decision-making to the players).

This very recent example from my other key field of operation, the legal profession, illustrates the point brilliantly as well. One of my colleagues on the Steering Group of the O Shaped Lawyer (take a look, we are transforming the legal profession….and this report, hot off the press this week, shares some insights from the Pilots we have run which might also be of benefit to other sectors https://www.oshapedlawyer.com/the-pilot ) gave us a master class in letting go this week. Sophie Gould leads our Junior Board, and as she updated us all on progress on Monday, I had a huge smile on my face. Sophie explained how, having set the tone and direction, she had very much let the group lead the discussion; in doing so they came up with a list of priorities that not only built on our own, but has also meant that their level of enthusiasm and engagement is through the roof.

What can help?

I’m going to share just one tip on this. Because it really is the crux. And I don’t want it to get lost.

Get the right people around you, in the right places.

As Jack Ma (Alibaba) explained to a roomful of young leaders at Davos a few years back, leadership starts with getting people who are smarter than you in the right roles.

Letting go isn’t easy. It doesn’t always seem the obvious thing to do. If you want to really deliver as a leader though, it is a must.

For more on this or any aspect of leadership, with a healthy dose of mindset, sport, and I hope usefulness thrown in, do feel free to browse through all the articles in the Huddle, or get in touch with me directly on catherine@sportandbeyond.co.uk

*I quote more men than women. I need to get better at this, and re-position my quote wall accordingly. It’s not as though there aren’t a large number of brilliant female authors out there on leadership. However, the field is still dominated by men. Which is why I am in the process of writing my own book on leadership and mindset. Then, you never know, one day someone might quote me!