Grow by filling leadership vacuum

In 2017, we published a very interesting note by Victor Cheng on a principle he calls ‘Leadership Vacuum’.

He argued that one best way to rise up the career ladders is by searching for the gaps between the known and visible boxes, jobs that are known to everyone. He argued that around those boxes there exist challenges and problems that need to be solved.

The good and bad reality is that most people do not want to solve those problems because they belong to no one. They are ‘everyone’s problems and therefore no-one’s problems.’ If you keep solving those problems, you will get noticed and with time, you will rise through the ranks.

Remember that this means you doing the jobs that many do not notice or do not want to do. It means you have to extend yourself beyond your call of duty. You will need an attitude that doesn’t say: “I cannot do this because it is not my job.” When you see something that needs working on and no one does it, you step in and do it.

But as Victor Cheng wrote, be careful not to step on the toes of other people. Mind people and their territories. That is why he talks about doing the jobs that are ‘between the boxes’—jobs that belong to no one but need doing for the organisation to move forwards, for your institution to excel. Go for those tasks and with time, you will gain big rewards.

I know someone who became a CEO of a technology company before the age of 35. When I forwarded him Victor Cheng’s article, he commented to me: “Wow, this is very powerful. I totally agree. That’s how I rose in my career, by doing the things that nobody owned—by filling the leadership gaps. I will google this guy and start following him.”

I called him so that he could explain this a little more. He gave me one example. When he was a junior IT officer, he was part of a project implementing a system. They had a system manufacturer team on the ground working with people from at least three or four departments. He said that all the representatives from the different departments were afraid to do more than just their bit. Everyone was afraid of doing more work, afraid of being blamed if things went wrong and so many other fears of the unknown. The young gentleman in question saw this as a chance to prove something.

What he did was to go round to all the teams to understand what they needed for them to do their part and then he conveyed the requirements to the manufacturers of the system. Within a short time, he was being recognised as the team leader representing all representatives from the company. Within time even those from the commercial side were working with him as the team leader.

With this background, when the system was fully implemented and up and running, two things happened positively for this gentleman. First, the system was added to his portfolio of the systems that he managed. Secondly, he was given a second project to manage where he even worked with teams in a sister company in a neighbouring country.

As this was happening, the young man was getting motivated as he was reaping the benefits of working through the gaps and doing the jobs that others did not want to do. This helped him grow his career fast.

Before he was 30 years old, there was a job for a director and knew that age would work against him, he went to the two people that were key to making the decision. He knew there were two people much older than him in the structure, at par with him in rank.

But he also knew that with his rich albeit short background, he could demonstrate big potential for the job. With this track record, he convinced the decision makers, got the job did well and four years later, he found a job elsewhere as CEO before the age of 35.

You too can grow professionally by filling the leadership vacuum!!!