ME, US and IT: the foundation model of leadership excellence

At iTS Leadership we have developed what we believe to be the foundation model of leadership excellence. We call it ME, US and IT.  Imagine a Venn diagram with three overlapping circles; one labelled ME; another labelled US and the final one labelled IT.  Whenever we are leading, we should be attending to one, two or all of these components as they are the keys to successful team leadership.

ME, US and IT are so central to leadership excellence that I’ve decided to dedicate the month of November to explaining more about each of them on my LinkedIn posts, every day giving you a tip or tool you can use in one of these areas.

But before I start next week with my first tip, here’s a brief introduction to what I mean by ME, US and IT.

ME refers to ME the leader and reminds us that self-awareness is central to leadership, as every interaction we have with others leaves a trace and has an impact.  As leaders we must know ourselves – our preferred styles, our strengths and weaknesses. We must understand how we tend to react in certain situations and recognise where our strengths can be overplayed and have negative consequences.

ME also represents ME the team member.  Every member of a team needs to be understood by the leader.  Today’s leadership movement is all about the leader getting the best from their teammates, inspiring them rather than telling them, energising and motivating them, encouraging them to stretch themselves.  They need the leader’s attention, support and encouragement on a personal one-to-one basis if that is to happen.

US is US as a team.  As a leader you are also a member of this team, as well as its leader.  If we are to be successful as a team, we must leverage our strengths, know how we are to work together and how we will get the best from each other.  The leader is responsible for both enabling and developing US as a collective body.

IT is our purpose, our strategy and can also be the specific task in hand.  The leader needs to articulate clearly what it is that we as a team need to achieve and why, and then give the team space so they can come up with how we will do it.  The team needs the leader to provide the resources, ensure they stay on track and keep their eye on the prize when they get distracted by everything else going on around us.  The leader must bring to life the IT that everyone can identify with and align behind, whatever their world view.

A word of caution

While ME, US and IT are of equal importance in leadership, trying to operate in the sweet spot of the overlap of all the circles on our Venn diagram is almost impossible.

The tasks and activities that we undertake as leaders very rarely present the opportunity to cover all three elements at the same time, so do not exhaust yourself trying to do this. Nor do we advise attempting to divide your week into equal thirds with a fixed period allocated to each segment. Business and leadership do not run to such a neat pattern, rather, use this as a model to identify where you have been focusing, where you are currently and where you need to go next.

I use it to reflect upon where I am putting my effort as a leader.  It allows me to identify if I have been spending too much time on one area at the expense of the others.

I like to think of ME, US and IT as three connected bank accounts: you can overdraw in one or even two in order to keep the third in credit, but eventually you will have to pay it back or face a consequence. This might mean extra charges, demands for repayment or even ending up with a lower credit rating which makes life more difficult in the future. 

In business and leadership, the most damaging impact of a long-term imbalance of ME, US and IT is on your credit rating with your team, where you lose their goodwill and trust. But by closely monitoring your ‘bank balances’ you can adjust your effort and focus to ensure that equilibrium is maintained.

As a projection tool, the ME, US and IT model enables you to look forward and identify where your focus needs to be and consequently where you are going to be operating. This allows you to pre-empt and manage the imbalance of your efforts.

I look forward to sharing more on ME, US and IT with you over the coming four weeks, and I hope you find the exercise useful. Be sure to check my LinkedIn posts regularly so you don’t miss out.