Latest / Lead With Clarity: Practical Insight for Senior Leaders / Taking Care of Those in Your Charge
Transcript
- Blake Holman: Welcome to Lead with Clarity. This is a space for leaders who want to grow without losing themselves in the process. Each episode is a short reflection on leadership, influence, and the inner work that shapes how we show up for others. It's not hype, not noise, just clear thinking for the journey of leading well. Today's episode is entitled, Taking Care of Those in Your Charge. Here we go. There's a question I ask every leader I work with early in our time together. It's simple. It's direct. And it consistently reveals more than most assessments ever could. The question is this, do the people who report to you feel like you are for them? Not with them, not beside them, for them. That distinction matters a lot more than most leaders realize. Simon Sinek said it rather clearly when he said, leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge. Let's cover that again slowly. Because the temptation is to agree with it quickly and move on. that would be the wrong response. The idea deserves to sit with you for a while. Again, Simon said, leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge. Most of us were promoted because we were exceptional at doing something. We hit the numbers. We solved the problems. We delivered results. And at some point, someone decided that because we were great at our work, we should lead others who do that work. But individual excellence and leadership are not the same skill. They require entirely different orientations. Individual excellence asks, what can I produce? Leadership, on the other hand, asks, what can I make possible for others? That is not a small adjustment. That's a complete reorientation of your daily purpose. And most leaders never fully make that shift. They keep operating like senior individual contributors, but with direct reports. They manage output. They review deliverables. And they wonder why their teams plateau. Here's where I see the most confusion. Leaders hear taking care and they read it as being permissive, as avoiding hard conversations, as softening standards to keep people comfortable. And that's exactly wrong. Taking care of the people in your charge means holding them to standards that reflect their actual potential. It means having the conversation they need, not the one that feels easy. It means removing obstacles, developing capability, and creating conditions where your people can do the best work of their careers. That is not soft leadership. That is the most disciplined, demanding form of leadership that there is. Think about the best leader you ever worked for, the one who comes to mind immediately. I'd be willing to bet they were not the one who let you coast. They were the one who believed in you before you believed in yourself. They challenged you and stayed with you through the challenge. They saw what you were capable of before you could see it clearly. That is care. That is also performance. Those two things are not intention. At the highest levels of leadership, they are inseparable. When your team knows you are genuinely invested in their growth, something shifts. Discretionary effort increases. Ownership deepens. People don't need to be pushed because they want to perform for a leader who is invested in them. Trust becomes the operating system of your culture rather than compliance. Here's what I want you to carry into this week. Before your next one-on-one, ask yourself, am I walking in here to check progress or to actually invest in this person? Before your next team meeting, ask, what is one thing I can do today to remove a barrier that is slowing my people down? And at the end of the week, don't just evaluate what got done, evaluate how your people are doing. Are they growing? Do they feel supported? Do they know you are for them? Because the answer to those questions will tell you more about your long-term effectiveness as a leader than any quarterly result. Leadership is not a position. It's a practice. And the practice that CINIC points us toward is not about accumulating authority. It's about deploying it in service of the people who trusted you enough to follow you. Care is not a leadership style. Care is the foundation every lasting legacy is built on. The leaders who endure are not the ones who demanded the most from their people. They're the ones who gave the most to them. That is the standard. Lead accordingly.