Going From ‘Doer’ To ‘Leader’.
The transition from being busy to leading can be rough.
Every now and then, you work with someone you know runs the ship.
You know the one: the one who makes it happen.
They thrive the more they do, somehow. They work at a different speed.
A total workhorse.
Sound like anyone you know at work?
The benefits to having a ‘Get Stuff Done Doer’ on your team.
A GSD Doer is the person who gets thrown oddly shaped jobs and magically comes up with solutions.
Problem-hunters, they remove anything that gets in their way.
When others think, ‘hmm … not sure’, a Get Stuff Done Doer thinks, ‘I’ll make it happen’.
Working with Get Stuff Done Doer.
If you’re lucky enough to work with a GSD Doer, you’ll marvel at how much can get done when you just … get on with it.
Equally, it can be tough to collaborate with one. Highly independent, they prefer to do it all themselves.
If you have such a Doer in your organisation, or you are one, today’s email is dedicated to how you can utilise a Doer's superpowers for everyone's benefit.
A GSD Doer’s love language is direct communication.
If you need to engage a GSD Doer, be direct. They’ll interpret this as clear communication.
No need to overthink feedback conversations. They prefer to know if they’re on the right track, and are mostly happy to sift through awkward delivery if it makes them better.
Their happy place is ‘finished projects’.
As a result, they’ll instinctively shy away from strategic tasks, even if it’s one of their KPIs. If you have a strategic ask, break it down into a project where it’s clear when they’re done.
Remember, their satisfaction is driven from a completed to do list. Give any strategic task mini milestones where it’s clear what it looks like, or even better, make it a project.
Strategic work will always feel inherently vague.
A Doer finds strategic work with no clear end confusing, overwhelming and unattractive.
Why? It’s impossible to ‘finish’ if a goal requires never ending consideration.
A clear finish point is what a GSD Doer needs to take action on strategic work. Meaning reacting to the busy, less important work, becomes less appealing.
Their satisfaction comes from finishing tasks. Make a task for them to finish.
Be upfront with your ‘don’t do’ list.
A GSD Doer assumes ownership before asking permission. Assume they’re mentally creating a spreadsheet of tasks, while you speak.
Remember they take any tasks on offer, even if never asked, as a to-do, as they drive satisfaction from starting or finishing things.
Only share an idea with a GSD Doer if you want something done about it.
Thinking out loud bosses, this is for you. Sharing ideas, in front of them, leads to them creating an internal to-do list. You need a plan on what you talk to them about and don’t.
Executives have told me even when they’re explicit about what they don’t want their Doers to do, the Doers find a way.
Don’t talk about it in front of them if you don’t want them to find a way to contribute.
Are you getting ideas on how to get the best from your Doers?
The awkward Doer to leader transition.
The transition from Doer to leader is rough. Delegation is counter intuitive for a GSD Doer, as it requires three things they don’t enjoy:
Being less busy;
Solving less problems themselves;
Witnessing others working at a different pace.
This awkward growing pain is partly why it’s estimated 60% of leaders fail within their first 24 months.
Does this resonate with you?
Are you at a point in your career where you’re thinking about any of these?
Your team/colleagues are underperforming…
You find yourself re-doing other people's work that seems ‘so simple’...
You have aspirations of doing something more strategic…
You want to be seen differently at work…
You feel like you’re running out of steam (e.g. burnout)...
If so, you might find it useful to try one of these ideas.
When I thought about my career… did I really dream of ‘being fast at emails’?
Do I really want to become an expert in this task?
Do I want to do this sh*t forever?
Why do I feel the need to save incompetent colleague?
Four tangible ways to get out of ‘doing mode’.
You’re not slacking off, you’re just finding new ways to use what you’ve spent years becoming really good at.
Write down the value you provide that is not speed/fix it related, such as:
a) insights you offer from your lived experience in your role.
b) people in the org and how you adapt to them to get results.
c) knowing what ‘good’ looks like.
d) what the CEO/board wants and how to do that.
Notice when you go into ‘save the day’ mode. Document how many times you assumed it was a task for you to ‘fix’ before stopping to ask: ‘is this mine? Who else could do it?’ What do you notice?
Practice watching someone else struggle without fixing the problem. What do you notice about your discomfort? (I found this one really hard, personally.)
Try delegating low stakes work. Practice on tasks that aren’t the end of the world if it goes terribly. (Try the four stages of delegation to figure out what ‘level’ to delegate to).
What do you think?
If you are a GSD Doer, practice pausing before ‘saving the day’.
This’ll buy you some time to ask yourself: does it need to be me?
If you’re managing a GSD Doer, break down strategic milestones (so they know what finished looks like), only share ideas you want executed and be explicit about what you don’t want them to work on.
If you report to a GSD Doer, be direct. They expect the same from you as they give.
Did this make you wonder how to help your Doers?
We have a number of leadership tools to help Doers become comfortable delegating and getting out of non-critical emergencies.
Get in touch to book an informal chat to get some ideas, or check out our training options.
“I’m learning how not to be in the doing and how to empower my team member.”