GOLDEN RULE #5: KEEP YOUR SECRETS
A lot changed for me when I first became a manager. The greatest change was my relationship with my peers, some of whom now reported to me. I’d always been a leader with personal power – power derived from qualities, regardless of rank or title – which was how I got promoted in the first place. But I had never been a manager with positional power – power derived from a title or role.
One of the adjustments I had to make was in the level of disclosure I had with my team. Before taking the role, I had shared the ups and downs of both my personal and business life with my peers. After a promotion, I learned a lesson that Wess Roberts and Bill Ross teach in Make It So: Leadership Lessons From Star Trek, The Next Generation: While the crew is free to share with the captain, the reserve is never true. I needed to strengthen communications upward so that I was always in the loop, but I never again shared personal information downward. If my team was worried about revenue, I wanted them to raise their concerns with me; but if I was worried about revenue, sharing my concerns could have undermined my team’s confidence or, worse, compromised our effectiveness by hurting morale and distracting members from our collective task.
For those reasons, I suggest all Business Superheroes establish a one-way communications policy – that is, don’t share your secrets with juniors. After all, sharing your burden in the short term only hurts you in the long term, because a burden shared is rarely a burden lessened, at least in business. Sharing your knowledge that someone is going to be fired doesn’t affect the outcome or makes the outcome any easier. It only magnifies the possibility that information will spread, creating a scenario that risks humiliating the individual involved and disrupting general morale.
To avoid this scenario, you may want to protect your secret identity by keeping your personal and business lives separate, just as Kal-El keeps his identity of Clark Kent separate from his Superman persona.
GOLDEN RULE 6: ESTABLISH A HIDEOUT
The Fantastic Four have the Baxter Building. Batman has the Batcave. And then there’s Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. Superheroes typically create a hideout to gain privacy, to have a place to think without distraction and, most of all, to have a safe place to decompress after tough battles.
Business Superheroes also need somewhere to wind down. It could be a conference room on a floor other than the one your office is on, a coffee shop down the street or even a mountain cabin. I recommend picking at least two spots:
First, find a safe haven to shed the day-to-day stuff. I start every day at Starbucks. There, I make my to-do list, get caught up on email and decide where my focus for the day should lie.
Then find a Fortress of Solitude to escape the larger, longer-term stuff. Whenever I need to plan strategy, set life goals or reconsider something, I retreat to my lakeside cottage. The distance from the office and the absence of distraction permit me to clear my head, re-evaluate my priorities and recharge my spirit. NEXT: Keep odd hours.
Category: Career Track, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Work
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