A short, unscripted Leaders Kit Bag episode (host Ben Morton) that identifies a common trap—‘LEST’ (leading in your spare time)—where leaders spend most energy doing and managing and only lead when time remains. Morton introduces the “Leadership Equalizer” (three dials: doing, managing, leading) and gives practical guidance to rebalance them by ruthlessly ditching low-value work, delegating tasks to empower others, and deliberately scheduling core leadership activities (one-to-ones, floor conversations, planning, check-ins).
Hi there, I'm Ben Morton and welcome.
To the Leaders Kit Bag, your go to podcast for practical leadership insights in just six minutes. In each episode, we tackle real challenges faced by leaders and managers, offering actionable tools and strategies you can take away and immediately apply. And because leadership doesn't happen in a studio, these episodes are mostly recorded outside on the move. They're raw, unscripted, and straight to the point. So wherever you are, let's dive in and sharpen your leadership skills six minutes at a time.
If you caught the last episode of the Leaders Kickback, you'd have heard me talking about the essential difference between leadership and management and why effective leaders need to be very intentional about using both disciplines. If you missed it, don't worry. I've included the link to it in the show notes for this episode. So today we're continuing that conversation by digging into a common trap that I see far too many leaders fall into, regardless of the level they're operating at. And it's what I call LEST or L I Y S T. So what is list? Well, it's simply an acronym that stands for leading in your spare time. It happens a lot. And it happens when all of our energy goes into doing and managing things. And leading our people only gets attention when, if you have any time left over. And the problem, of course, is there's never really any time left over, right? So what this means is that leadership gets pushed into the margins and our people, the very people we're responsible for supporting and developing, start getting the scraps of us. I want to introduce you to a model that I call the Leadership Equalizer. Imagine, if you will, a music mixing deck with three dials or maybe an old school stereo with the three part graphic equalizer. And if you imagine those three sliders represent doing things, managing things, and finally leading people. Now, for many leaders, especially those new to leadership and management, the doing things and managing things dial are always cranked right up to the max. And the leading dial, well, it barely gets touched. If we're honest and it's not a judgment, it's easy to see why that happens. Doing things, doing stuff is what made us successful. It's where we built our reputation. It's our comfort zone. And it's likely the stuff we enjoy doing and then management, the stuff we have to manage. Well, that usually comes with KPIs, dashboards and deadlines. And as we all know, what gets measured gets done. But here's the rub. Very few organizations actually measure leaders on how well they lead. Instead, we Leaders get measured on what we deliver. So what does this mean? What doesn't get measured doesn't get done. And so we keep doing stuff and we keep managing things. And leadership, real leadership, gets whatever time is left, which, as we said earlier, more often than not, is very little. So how do we rebalance the dials? Well, we need to make space for leadership, and that requires us to ditch some things, to delegate more, and to start doing some things differently and much more intentionally. Let's dive into each of these three elements, starting with ditch. Ask yourself this what am I doing today that adds no real value? Because in my experience, even for me, in my business, there's always something. It might be a legacy report that you're fairly confident no one even reads anymore. It could be a weekly meeting that hasn't served a real purpose in months, maybe even years, or a spreadsheet that you and your team are updating out of habit. And you never actually use anything. Sorry, you never do anything with the data. You need to start here by getting really ruthless. Ask yourself, what can I stop completely? Because as a leader, a manager, your time is just too valuable to be wasting on things that no longer matter. Next up is delegate. There will be some things that can't be ditched. They do still need to be done, but do they need to be done by you? So look at your to do list again and ask yourself, what can I delegate to someone else? Or a more powerful question to ask is, what am I continuing to do since stepping up into a new leadership position that I really should let go of and delegate to someone else? It's likely you'll be holding on to stuff you enjoy doing, or a process you built, or a relationship that you built that is important, but you are no longer the one to be leading on it. And remember, delegation isn't about offloading stuff or dumping stuff on your people. It's about empowerment and development. It helps others grow whilst freeing you up to focus on the things that only you and you alone can do. Yes, it might feel uncomfortable at first, especially if you take pride in being the one who gets stuff done. But if you want to lead, well, you need to start letting go of some things. And finally, let's look at what you need to start doing differently. This is about choosing to start doing the things that fall under the category of real leadership. It could be things like regular one to ones with your team, walking the floor and talking to your team or people in the organisation, carving out time to plan, reflect or scan ahead, or checking in with someone who you know is struggling or being stretched. None of these are soft tasks. None of these are things to do when the doing is all done. They are core elements of effective leadership. They won't happen by chance. They'll only happen when we deliberately make time for them. And here's one final thought for you. The truth is your team deserves more than whatever's left for you at the end of each day. Leadership can't and mustn't be something we do in the gaps we when all of the real work is done. So take a look at your equalizer today. Sketch it out on a piece of paper with those three dials doing things, managing things and leading people. Which dial is cranked up too high, which one is too low or barely being touched? And what can you ditch, delegate or do differently? Starting this week, that's it for this episode. As always, look after yourself and those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead. And until next time, lead on.
