The Best Piece of Advice for Leaders

21 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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1:09

In this brief leadership talk, the speaker contrasts day‑to‑day management—handling customers, complaints, and short‑term operational problems—with true leadership, which works on the business by shaping its future through strategy, culture, recognition, and goal‑setting. The central piece of advice distilled into seven words is: “only do what only you can do.” The speaker argues that leaders should delegate routine tasks and concentrate on activities that only they, by virtue of their position, can perform—changing culture, setting strategy, praising achievements, and establishing goals. By avoiding being bogged down in operational details, leaders can focus on strategic, high‑impact work that drives long‑term success.

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I'm going to share with you today the best piece of leadership advice I ever received. So management tasks are important— looking after customers, sorting out complaints, overcoming problems— all that day-to-day stuff is really important to run the business well, and it's all to do with the short-term, making things happen this month, this quarter. Leadership is working on the business, not in the business. It's about looking at the future. It's doing the strategic things. And the best piece of advice I ever received for a leader is this. It's just 7 words: only do what only you can do. There are certain things which only you can do because of your position as leader in terms of changing the culture of the organization, setting strategy, praising people for achievement, setting goals. These sorts of things are really important, and they are strategic things which a leader should work on. So don't— try not to get bogged down in the day-to-day routine stuff. Delegate that wherever possible and focus on leadership tasks if you are a leader. And follow this advice: only do what only you can do.