Successful Leaders Work Harder Than Their Team Members

“It is hard for someone who is walking unburdened to generate an enthusiasm for work in others.” -Tenzing Norgay (Mountaineer)

There is an important lesson in the above quote for business leaders trying to build a team and getting them to produce great results.

Many managers trained in business schools enter businesses with a belief that “Management is getting work done and not doing it ourselves.”

Yes, management does call for the organization of various resources to achieve the desired outcome. But that objective can’t be achieved if the manager himself does not work. It is said that “Great ideas don’t work if you don’t.” Similarly, business managers or leaders can’t produce great results if they try to only “Get it done” and do not get involved themselves.

That is because a team does not get motivated by a leader who himself is not involved in the work, who is “not in the trenches” with them. A team will only be motivated if their leader is also putting in enough amount of work, not necessarily working next to them, but working somewhere in the business. A team whose leader spends most of his time away from business relaxing cannot put in the work expected of them. They can’t feel that enthusiasm. Businesses lead by such leaders can’t grow.

A troop cannot be enthused by a commander who himself is not willing to come on the battlefield and fight along with them. Empty slogan-shouting does not motivate soldiers to give their life if their general is not involved in the fight.

This is also a reason why second or third-generation family members entering family businesses fail to create an impact expected of them. If they have not put in the hard work which goes into creating something and they have been ascended to the throne only by virtue of being born in a particular family, then they cannot generate enthusiasm in their teams by simply shouting orders from an ivory tower. A team cannot be motivated by a leader who has not grasped the value of labor.

So, if we wish to build a team to grow our business, we must make our hands dirty. We must spend more time working in our business, than anybody else in our team. There is no other way of “getting it done”.

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