The Four Gifts of Leadership: #3 - Insight

The third gift in our series that you can give to your team is the gift of insight.

Insight is to see within, an understanding and empathy for a situation. It is a unique perspective that comes from having seen or experienced this before but being on the sidelines, as it were, and not in the field of play. Insight translates into instruction. The best analogy I can think of is that of a coach.

A coach explains, teaches, corrects and encourages. The coach can see the big picture and can architect a plan to outwit the competition all while directing the players to assemble and move to execute the plan. 

The coach spends time daily on the field supervising drills, setting up practice scenarios and reviewing game plans. The coach spends time with each player individually and with the team as a whole. 

You’ll find the coach equally standing on the sideline calling out instructions to improve skills as much as describing strategy with the team huddled around on one knee. 

At game time you’ll find the coach pacing the sidelines, pleading the teams case with the referee, calling plays from a playsheet or back at the bench, down on one knee explaining critical, in-the-moment information to make the team successful. This is intentional involvement with insight. Imagine the bewilderment of the players if the head coach sat up high watching the game from a glass booth, unable or unwilling to share their perspective or insight. Ludicrous. 

Your gift to the team can be that of insight into their game. You’re not on the field and you can’t play it for them, but you can adopt the role of the coach from the sidelines. This is an important gift. 

You give this gift by coaching your team to execute together. You not only set the culture of what matters to the team, a culture of winning, camaraderie, support and teamwork but your job is to help your team develop good habits of execution. Day by day, you need to intentionally work with your team to improve their ability to play together. 

One client recently articulated well the role of the leader. Your job is to take a group of people who act more like a ski team to operate more like a soccer team. That’s brilliant! 

Lead your team to create rules and norms for working together effectively. Even better, help them learn to adjust and react when things don’t go as planned. This is the gift of insight in action. 

Your team will tell you “Coach us, don’t control us. Have our collective good in mind. Call the crucial plays, but give us the freedom to make choices in real time when we see a better way from our “on field” perspective. 

Have confidence in the wisdom that you’ve cultivated from your education, experiences, successes and failures. Trust your instincts, share your insight. 

Think about it.

To learn more about the four gifts of leadership be sure to get your copy of Superpower: Release the Potential in your Team available on Amazon and all online book retailers