Programmers work with computers and leaders work with people
When programmers work, the objects they work with tend to be computers.
When plumbers work, they tend to work with pipes.
Carpenters work with wood.
Leaders work with people. People are the objects of leaders’ work. Their tools are conversations—their equivalents of keyboards, wrenches, and saws.
Most professions require thought, planning, and writing those plans out—programmers, plumbers, and carpenters included. After they finish planning and writing their plans, they act by working on the objects of their trade. Leaders do too. Their objects are people.
When chefs train, they learn to use tools like knives. When leaders train, they learn to use tools like conversation, perception, belief, and habit skills. Not knowing how to use perception skills is like a surgeon not knowing how to use a scalpel or a banker not knowing how to use a spreadsheet.
You can’t see these tools like you see a power sander, but that’s what leaders use.
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