Thread by @ImmyKaur

Underrated basic leadership skill is knowing when your not the right person to hold something anymore, your not doing a great job or someone can hold it much better, even better celebrating + embracing peeps who are able to take it further, better.

The ego, fear of displacement, insecurity, entitlement is a bitch in these scenarios, but the only way to something better is to confront this stuff in ourselves, because holding on to sinking ships or holding on to that no longer for us, is zero sum too.

Or if we do want to, hold on to something the active transformation we have to do to learn, be better, improve, has to be exactly that, active, honest, open, bright, exciting, enticing. Basic first principles still matter here, people around you need to love, how you ..

.. lead something, work, make space, improve, feel like they can contribute, communicate, make things better. When we are holding on to sinking ships, make space to transform + better better, + / or joyfully move on to where we are better place. The opposite is a dead end.

Some of those basic things around good teams, leadership, relationships get lost in meta analyses, am I open to change, am I easy or enjoyable to work with, am I able to forge great working relationships with those I need to work closely with, am I able to know when I’m not ...

... + change that joyfully, without tearing the whole thing down. I think sometimes in the meta assessment of what’s needed especially in orgs working on big things, these basics get forgotten, with new younger peeps coming in, these basics matter, without them you stuffed ..

... all the talent, ideas, contracts in the world matter, but unless they don’t sit with the basics of how you build those basics with the people around you, the teams you work with, or know when it’s not there, or when the combinations are right or working, that’s where ..

... the emotional intelligence and human element of it all matters more than the logic. Basic good leadership + team building + working relationships still start at basic principles no matter what the work is, who you are, the basic human social contract everyday of ..

... I want to work with you, for you, alongside you, I know how to communicate well with you, I enjoy this, I feel like I can say when something isn’t working, I feel like we can work together well, I am inspired by what’s possible together, I can tell when it’s not going well ..

... and I know I can be honest + say let’s figure this out, I can also know when it’s not working or it’s time to change things, I feel like I can be better, + do more than I ever thought possible in this relationship, I know you’ll celebrate my wins, + support the tough times ..

... I know you’ll turn up, be reliable, + consistent, I’ll sometimes be in awe or amazement by the things you help create, but I know you won’t gatekeep that instead seen for us all to learn quickly, how you did that + or how we can, rather than seek to do in the dark ...

... shared agency, and discovery, and joy, and hope still matters whatever the work, good leadership is still needed as we unbundle old power + org dynamics. If your coming into the world of work, + are wondering about how those you look up to do some of this, it really is ..

... basic principles first, before whatever your brilliant at. When you see peeps locked into not being able to go back to those basic principles know how to not replicate + liberate yourself from that, don’t try to assimilate to fit into the world of work. Peeps be lost ..

... for all sorts of complex reasons, but before we need loads of technical + visionary brilliance in the work, + boy we really need that, we need some proper basic principles back of humility, communication, relationships + some basic building blocks of great leadership.

... it’s also not really a value judgment on an individual, at the end of the day your main powerful working combinations are going to be small groups of connection the 4/5 peeps max you do something with in a team, in a project, in a certain scenario each day, even if you have

... a 1000 person company, your combinations of key working relationships are always small and connected, it’s not a value judgement on you, but in those combinations, peeps gotta love it, like seriously everyone just gets bored + sick of it when the basics don’t exist ...

... so when your lost or thinking how do I be the leader or the person I want to be in this, go back to some basic humility, joy, honesty, communication, relationships, inspiration, reliable, thorough + the basics of doing a great job of something, before you get lost in the ..

... big stuff of leadership. That will naturally emerge in the right conditions, because peeps be loving that dynamics. Also you change scenarios to thrive, just because a combination doesn’t work that isn’t a value judgment on you, just that you need to find a new combination.

Some of the best people I’ve worked for, work on the basics always, know how to say I need help, I’m not doing a great job on this I know you can take it way further, knew how to build teams with people better than them + working with them was just inspiring + stuff happened.

Then it also happened that they knew stuff, discovered stuff, shared knowledge, showed me, encouraged me, whether it was through talking, writing, visualising they were brilliant at explaining, encouraging + showing me what was possible. But, it was always built on some basics.

There’s no supreme version of what ‘good’ looks like in this it’s not in binaries of introverts, extroverts, it’s not in any traditional notions of organisations or leaderships or senior roles it’s in the combinations or what your working in or towards so it doesn’t need to ..

... follow any set notion of great leadership, great teams, but in your working environment wherever your thrive the basics have to be there, + if you can know they aren’t + transform or move on without trials of destruction + seek / create new realities combinations ..

... that still really matters. Don’t just look at the work and ideas that inspire you, or the role you want to be in, don’t just focus on the technical learning of that, that’s important, but look at everything around it the spaces, relationships, basic joyful conditions ..

... those who inspire you seek to create for that work to happen. Remember where it doesn’t exist or that’s not working or you don’t have that feeling most of the time it isn’t a value judgement on anyone, but it needs to change, that stale, holding on to power, working in ..

... the dark, bad relationships, no trust, bad communication isn’t a norm you should assimilate to or think this is how the world of work is, great leaders always be like this ain’t right, I don’t want to be like this, + seek to create something different + it starts at basics.

That’s much harder than it looks too, or it seems, and it’s much easier than it seems. Two sides of the same coin, easy because when your lost or your thinking I want to be really great at this or lead this, + you don’t know how you go back to those basics, hard because ..

... there are so many human complexities that mean people really move mad when they not confronting their own stuff + you have to be real brave to call that out, or say hey what the hells going on here, or to be brave yourself to step out of something not working ..

.. or transform ourselves, hard because you then have to do that + know your work, grow together, learn together on the hard stuff too. One without the other rarely moves, builds or socialises into something real, even the best most visionary peeps I know, when they build ..

.. the best teams around them + the very specific quite deep visionary stuff, it still comes back to same basics of whether they are great to work with, be around, humble etc as to whether those ideas became something or people wanted to work with them, in turn they thrived too.

It’s both not that deep and is that deep.

I’ve seen people do it from within, transform a scenario into something new and amazing, and I’ve seen people have to leave a scenario and reset when somethings not working, but it’s always active not passive + it’s always gone to the basics or do people want to be around ..

... them work with them, for them, alongside them, does it inspire people, is it built on great relationships, trust, openness, before it’s ever been about the content of the work, if that’s great then the combination is magic, but it’s always been the basics first.

The only places I’ve seen it go stale and go nowhere + peeps who had the potential to lead incredible things was where they stopped thinking about those basic principles, the socialising of the idea, process, where it became static, insular, doesn’t mean you can’t do great work

... or produce great insights but it just stalled + became dark because either they weren’t able to lead it, socialise it, build joy + momentum around it, weren’t able to be part of a team who could do that, or weren’t able to to take the leap out + create the scenario or ..

... find the scenario to thrive in. So, often they stay static + make it pretty miserable for everyone around them because they can’t find the strength to do the inner work or rebuild basic relationships which is an active and hard process.

Also, we have to know that in a lifetimes we can reinvent this many times, we don’t have to prisoner for any one scenario, but when I think of amazing leaders I’ve seen they were honest with that, they rarely leave trails of destruction + are open + honest + active about ..

... the next steps, the change that’s needed, when they need to move on, or create a new reality or stay + transform it. If you’re young + new in orgs you can sometimes think you need to assimilate to stuff, but often it’s just older peeps, stuck, + not transforming + taking it

... out on you, that isn’t leadership, great leadership will help you feel bright, joy, possibility, it’ll be open, honest, know it’s limits, it’ll show you how, not just tell you how, it won’t worry about sharing knowledge, because it knows doing that is better for ..

... everyone, it’ll feel good, it’ll have good relationships, you’ll wake up and look forward to being in those spaces, it will make you feel enabled, possible, do more than you imagined possible, it’ll always see those basics as an active process everyday as a basic foundation.

There’s a lot of fear of displacement in the world of work, as a young person coming in you’ll not realise loads of people trying to hide + hold on to what they do out of fear of anyone being able to do their role better, it’s literally the antithesis to how they be better ..

... but when you’re young you perceive it as oh wow some magical thing that only that person can do well, the best leaders will show you with joy + passion, be excited that you’ll do it even better + that new possibilities will emerge for you + them. Don’t get confused by the ..

... zero sum, fear driven, hierarchal structures that seek to keep you in your place or keep people comfortable or justifying their lack of growth, it’s often not bad peeps or power hungry, just broken peeps unable to confront + transform + be honest.

Everyone has these moments too, how quickly and how you deal with them ultimately becomes your legacy or what your known for as a leader, some do it in a way that inspires you to grow always, + that’s where some of the best leadership / stewardship of things I’ve seen has been.

Also don’t over think it in your gut you’ll know this is someone or a group of people I can thrive with, if it feels right for your soul you’ll know, contribute to growing that basic culture or relationship, respect, trust, inspiration + if it feels wrong it probably is.

Also seen the absolute opposite be true, brilliant peeps underestimate themselves so much, so when someone tell you you are amazing + can hold / lead something amazingly too don’t be shy hold it do it well, build the basics around it don’t let the toxic cultures that lead to the

... above stop you from thriving or stepping up or believing you can, just don’t get too comfortable with it all or forget the basics.