“If I have people who are taking care of the company, taking care of the mission... then I do what I can to go to bat for those people.”

“If I have people who are taking care of the company, taking care of the mission... then I do what I can to go to bat for those people.”

I was talking to a friend last night about leadership and our experiences with the good, the meh, and the not-so-good types of leaders. She said this quote and it stuck with me.

When she first said it, I though, “of course, that makes total sense!” And then I thought about it and realized how often we completely miss opportunities to do this.

It's so easy as a leader to focus on the people who seem to need more help, coaching, or training… and that leaves little to no time for the people who are delivering consistently or above expectations.

I know I've been guilty of this - giving extra guidance and support to the folks who were struggling (and the folks who asked for help) before I made any time for the people who were quietly doing awesome work every day. 🫠

Looking back at these moments, I see solid performers who could have been even stronger if I'd taken more time to say, “What's energizing you about work right now? Where do you want to grow?"

Going to bat for these people - the high performers and consistent deliverers (is that a word?) - would have strengthened the team and helped us deliver even more powerful results.

But I know how easy it is to get trapped in the cycle of focusing on bringing others up to match the level of the solid performers.

We've probably all been on the receiving end of this, too - a well meaning boss who saw us delivering consistently and focused all their energy on the underperformers.

I'll leave you with a challenge. 😉
Go take a look at your team - who is the strongest performer, and what can you do to go to bat for them this week? (Or if you don't have a team, who in your life seems to have it all together?)


And if you do this, send me a note - I'd love to hear about it 😁