When not reading, coding, and thinking about Identity, one of my favorite things to do is lift. Why lifting? Good stress relief, facing unmovable objects, setting your sights on a goal, all good. Ultimately, I love it because of the simplicity of lifting. But I also love the fact that is an individual, focused activity that I can do outside of work. I’m not big into the science around it, just its simplicity…I pick stuff up, and I put it back down….and if I do that enough, I get stronger and get healthier.
Why is this important when it comes to being a leader? Surprisingly, there are a lot of similarities. But, what I like to focus on is more the strong lifts (lifts are usually broken down into pushing and pulling). If you look at all the world records and huge lifters, they do all the major things, but this is all in support of their big lift which is the deadlift (a pull lift). From an energy and strength management perspective, your pulls are going to be bigger given they tend to allow for combination of muscles to support the lift. In a push lift, you may have combinations, but the lift going to require a lot more effort to move and maintain the movement. So, pulling is going to have the bigger numbers and be more effective (volume wise) for lifters.
How does this equate to leadership? Well, if you are a lower-level leader (e.g. middle manager, supervisor) or just not at the right level of leadership in your organization (e.g. Identity, Security) then you are always going to be pushing. To get budgets, resource, tools, enact change, etc., you are always going to be pushing and exerting more effort doing it. Additionally, you are going to be fighting both pushing your agenda and maintaining what you already have within your group. But, if you are established leader with the proper organizational support (CISO reporting to CEO / board, CidO reporting to CEO, etc) then you are going to be pulling your team and peers along with you in your strategic goals. By moving to the front, you can pull / lead more effectively and exert more influence (and force) to achieve your goals.
Using this formula of pulling and leadership, we can start to not only do more with the effort we exert, we can bring more people and change along. This will give greater influence and impact to your organization.
So, the next time you start looking at your organization, think about lifting and how much you’re going to be able to move. Exert your energy where its most effective and can enact the most impact and return on your effort. You’ll do more (bigger lifts) and achieve your goals.
