Quick. In 30 seconds, tell me what you do and how you would instruct someone else to fulfill your responsibilities.

Would that be difficult for you? Apart from situations where you’re experiencing fuzzy role clarity, do you think about how you would replicate yourself? Leadership reimagined multiplies roles, refines clarity, and replicates efforts.

Most leadership examples emphasize the person leading the pack based on speed, strength, charisma, and likability. Leadership must be followable, and being timid, slow, or indecisive will not attract people to your cause. Leadership reimagined doesn’t focus on increasing followership; it focuses on making followers owners.

If I’m going to multiply roles, I must clarify the role and demonstrate how to perform the functions. This means I need to put thought into what I do, how I do it, and why I do it. I must move beyond doing my role well; I must think through how I train someone else to do exactly what I do. Multiplying roles is a leadership philosophy. I have to think differently before multiplication occurs.

Think of teaching someone how to play the drums. You begin by holding the drumstick correctly. You show how to hit the snare to produce the best sound. You show how to read drum music so the person can practice on their own. You begin incorporating coordination exercises for other pieces of the drum set. You show how to play a basic song. You illustrate proper fills and time cadence.

Or, you could just show off your talents and then hand the sticks to someone, expecting them to play just like you do.

Leadership reimagined deconstructs activities and builds a roadmap for anyone to follow.

Refining clarity is explaining and illustrating the functions that you do well. Just like the drum illustration, leadership reimagined takes what you know and builds a platform that helps someone else gain the knowledge you’ve worked for. What this does is create a shorter pathway for someone else to know what you’ve learned.

Refining clarity is the act of writing the role and making it simple, so that others can move quickly into the role and become effective. Clarity is listing the basic objectives of the function, adding details that make the work easier, and providing resources that complement them.

Leadership reimagined only works when trust is present. This isn’t the type of trust where a participant shows their value by performance. This is the type of trust where the leader decides to empower people and actually believes that others can do the job as well, or better, than themselves. 

This is not easy and does not come naturally. Other people break trust and often prove themselves unfit for work. However, to replicate efforts, trust must be the first instinct of reimagining leadership. Otherwise, leaders will burn out, fade away, and become ineffective because no one can do great projects alone.

Replicating efforts is the art of empowering others and releasing responsibility without micromanaging. This becomes easier if you’ve invested time in rethinking leadership and intentionally trained others. Replicating efforts requires work on the front end, but it benefits others when they thrive.

You can reimagine your leadership. 

Think about how you can multiply your efforts. 

Write your actions on paper and review the workflow.

Trust others to fulfill the roles after you have trained them on objectives and functions, and provided resources.

Leadership reimagined is actually nothing new. It employs an ancient system showing the work, working together, and releasing others to do great work.

Get Better Soon shares frameworks/cures addressing systems, culture, leadership, and people.

Systems – healthy systems boost productivity without burnout. Alignment, making decisions, time stewardship, and making change the right way make work better, not harder.

Culture – empowering people is the best way to move forward. Collaboration, managing career stages, and embracing growth are built into healthy organizations.

Leadership – the best leaders don’t get in the way. They know how to apply core values, listen to the right people in their inner circle, and replicate their work.

People – this is how organizations thrive. Empowered people possess the right attitude, perspective, grit, and optimism to help organizations excel.

You can change as much as you want. Rethink what is possible, identify and address friction points, refine your promotion process, and resolve the issues that are hindering your progress.

Do it soon.