A friend recently sent me some songs and asked me to play drums on them. 

Along the way he sent a few reference tracks, finished songs from popular artists that could illustrate the mood he wanted me to capture.

I listened to one of them and then told him: I can’t do that.

I offered alternative approaches I could effectively execute, but it was incredibly liberating to just acknowledge that the thing he wanted was not a thing I could provide.

Doing so didn’t diminish the other things I am good at. 

Doing so wasn’t an admission of wholesale incompetence. 

It was just a genuine and direct acknowledgment that the thing he wanted wasn’t something I could do for him.

Instead of saying YES to something and bashing my head into a wall because I wasn’t actually equipped to make it happen, I just owned the gap in my abilities.

This approach, one that leaders everywhere should consider from time to time, requires just two things:

The self-awareness to understand your present capabilities and the confidence to know that you have plenty of value to offer, but not necessarily to everyone in every circumstance.

Sometimes the best thing we can do as leaders is to step aside and let someone else be the hero today.

Your job is not to prove that you can do everything well.

Your job is to help your team unlock their potential and deliver outsized results. 

TRY THIS: Actively look for opportunities to position members of your team as the hero. Identify people you lead whose strengths are your weaknesses and put them in a position to shine.

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My free PDF, “The 5 Secrets of Impossibly Effective Teams,” will show you the simple leadership moves that help teams unlock their full potential and deliver outsized results, without burning out. Grab your copy now at geoffwelch.com/secrets