Whether you have been promoted into a new role, are currently serving in a senior leadership role or simply want to increase your personal effectiveness in your life, there is one question you need to ask yourself. “What is my highest and best use?” When you ask that question and really think about it, it forces you to step outside the current structure of what you are doing and consider a larger context, one with more meaningfulness and greater personal power.
Really consider it – take the next few days to mull it over if the answers do not readily appear. What is your highest and best use at work? What is your highest and best use at home? Another way of thinking about this is to ask, “What is it that only I can do; that if I am not doing, won’t get done?” When you answer that question, you begin to get a firmer grasp on your highest and best use. By asking that secondary question, you can outline the actions, decisions and ways of engaging others that plays to your highest and best use of self in terms of talent, experience, insight and organizational or family needs.
After you have considered that secondary question and outlined those activities that if left undone by you won’t get done, you then need to ask a 3rd question, “What are the things I am now doing that someone else could do if I were to delegate, hand-off, empower or otherwise begin to let go of doing?” The key here is that as long as you are doing those things that others could do you are not having the time to do as many of those things that ONLY you can do. When that 3rd question is asked, you can begin to see the things that you are doing and may even enjoy doing that others could do, thus freeing you up to do those things that only you can do. Yet, that means letting go of what you know, have become deeply experienced in and know that you can do very well. Yes and, if you continue to do what you know how to do and do those things you are good at but others could do or learn to do, you have effectively capped your power and limited your effectiveness whether it be at work or in your personal life.
Are you ready to take that next step up, to be more effective, powerful and to create greater meaningfulness in your work and life? Part two in this series takes us deeper into these questions and offers a few tools to empower, develop and delegate to others while stepping up your game in all aspects of life.
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