Leader Fables: 'The Invisible Work of Leaders'

I got stung this week. Someone asked me, dead serious, “What would you say you do here?”

The honest answer is: a lot of what I do, you’ll never see.

You won’t see the ego I swallowed so someone else could take the stage. You won’t see the credit I passed along or the patience it took to let a decision play out when I could’ve just stepped in. You won’t see the emotional labor of carrying context that no one else has.

That’s the work. And it’s rarely the work people picture when they think about leadership.

Casey and I get into the unseen side of leadership on the latest Leader Fables. We talk about why it’s misunderstood and why it might be the most meaningful work we do.