What are Leadership Levers?

Okay, levers then, like proper ones, just for a minute.

So a lever is a plank and a fulcrum, right? A plank and a fulcrum.

You push down on one end and something much heavier goes up at the other, right? You haven't gotten stronger.

You've just put the plank somewhere better and that placement does the work.

Depending on where you put that plank, it reduces your effort.

So when I say leadership lever, I'm meaning something quite particular.

And I've got a little bit stricter about it as I've gone on, because I think the word gets used for all sorts.

For me, that lever has to be small, small enough to do tomorrow morning without telling anybody.

If it needs a big working group and a launch, well, that becomes a project and projects are totally fine, but they're a different thing.

I've written a book about that, right? Change starts here.

A lever is different.

It has to be repeatable.

Monday, then again Thursday, working both times.

So it can depend on you being brave or fresher in a decent mood, but because by Wednesday, let's face it, on a real week, you're none of those three.

And usually it would have to live inside something already in your week, maybe meetings, for example.

You have them all the time, don't you? One-to-ones, emails, handovers, whatever it is.

And a lot of people actually miss that one, actually.

A lot of people are happy to add something, but no one seems to have the room.

So the shape I started to use in my newsletter, it took me four or five issues to find.

And there's a situation.

It always starts with a situation, always a real one, usually somebody I've worked with.

Then the lever, so the move, right, and why it works.

And then the move itself, the thing to go and do.

And if I can't write that last bit, then I'd totally bin the draft.

And I have already binned a fair few.