3 Powerful Leadership Lessons I Wish I Knew 15 Years Ago

What’s the most challenging part of running a business?

People. Emotions, desires, and egos make people tricky to deal with. It’s the one thing school never prepares you for. When I got my MBA (nowadays, it’s called YouTube), I learned strategy, finance, and law, but every damn professor forgot a key component, how to successfully lead human “beings.”

I made some unbearable mistakes early on, mostly due to my own ego, which has since been shattered and rebuilt.

Follow these three simple but powerful tips to lead and grow a successful team:

Tip 1: Lead the person, not the role.

Every person is unique.

You can never lead people the same way, just as you can never parent children the same way. Everyone has their own personality, strengths, and weaknesses.

You hold people accountable to the same standards but always lead them differently.

Tip 2: Understand people’s capability spectrum.

Before you delegate any task, project, or area of responsibility, you should understand where someone falls on the capability spectrum.