Assume Command

Leadership shouldn’t be a bidding war.

Like literally everything in life, there are trade-offs involved in leadership and there’s a price to pay for it that’s simply too high. If you want to lead a team or group, that’s great! But you need to know that at some point, the cost is simply too high.

Here’s what I’ll see: a team forms unofficially in the office. It has maybe eight people. Right away, two or three people decide they want to take charge. And they’ll start this huge pissing contest with each other, trying to one-up and puff chests and whatever else until it’s all chaos. Nobody gets what they want and the team is a disaster. Because all parties treated leading the team like an auction – each one trying to out-bid the other with the currency of their social capital.

Leadership needs to be thought of as having a static price. If I’m on a team and I think I should lead it, I’ll start leading it. I’ll just assume it. But if someone wants it badly enough to try to jockey, I won’t immediately and automatically get into that bidding war. Instead, I’ll assess my price preference. How badly do I want it?

Nine times out of ten, I don’t. So I save my social capital (and my mental energy) for when I do. Knowing when someone is willing to cut their own arm off to outbid you on something is a keen skill to develop, and it’ll save you a lot of headaches. And when you do need to assume command – you will.