I love this my only add is mostly a warning to women. DO NOT USE THIS AGENCY FOR TASKS THAT REQUIRE DOMESTIC LABOR AT WORK. Do not sign up to take agency on getting people to sign Tom's birthday card or cleaning up the station at the kitchen counter have been delivered. I've seen so many high agency women reduced to fancy maids and secretaries. Solve for the business drivers first.
Thanks Angus! It's kind of weird; on the one hand, the internet is full of posts about agency, on the other hand it feels like a topic that's still massively underexplored. I guess both can be true.
Great (and detailed) post. I love your story at the start about Hannah and the other guy. It’s spot on.
As a leader I do want a good ROI on my time. But as I’ve gotten older realise the Lances of the world probably have some other skills to bring out with a bit more coaching. (most of the time :)
Oh for sure, being low-agency doesn't mean you don't have valuable skills. But if most people, or everyone, on your team is low-agency, you quickly become the bottleneck as the manager. You at least need some high-agency folks who can just go and run with topics so you have some free bandwidth to coach and support others.
The most satisfying scenario is where somebody starts low-agency and then develops into a high-agency person over time. I had a few folks on my teams that, in the beginning, needed almost daily check-ins to get stuff done, and in the end just owned entire topics autonomously and kept me in the loop with brief updates (and maybe an occasional problem-solving jam session).
All this sounds great, and I agree with all the points made. However, you seem convinced that every manager would love this, and this simply isn't the case. If you are someone who likes to get up and go, who likes to get things done, solve or manage problems, and you have a boss who doesn't want that, then you need to get a different boss, but that isn't always that easy. In 25 years of working in corporate settings, I have had more bosses who would prefer Lance to Hannah and actively undermine agency among their staff. Doesn't mean you give up being the person with agency, but the rosy picture of success you paint isn't always the reality.
Very much so. If you work for a Lance, Lance can feel quite intimidated if you're having agency Hannah. But as you said, if you have a boss who doesn't want that, then you need to get a different boss. Don't let them undermine or discredit your effort.
this is such a good post! wished i had read this much earlier in my career. wonder if you have anything to say about exercising agency vs managing time (and being selective in when and where to exercise high agency). I can imagine that if agency is like a muscle that can be developed, constant use can tire one out. In a bureaucratic environment especially, I have been trying to polish my thinking on how to best exercise my agency for most impact. Thank you again for the great insights 🙌🏾
This is interesting and I've experienced both in my career, including whole projects where the agency momentum took them all the way in one or other direction. But what leads people to be low agency? And do some folks have a head start on being high agency? My conclusions? The reasons can be systemic. Leaders need to take account of unconscious bias in organisational systems that enable some teams and individuals and hold others back.
I used to do this all the time, but didn’t get promoted and just got handed more work. Now I only do this when it’s related to the job I’m paid for or it will make my work better/easier. I’m not working for free and don’t do work for my boss or coworkers anymore.
You wonderfully articulated what I have been feeling ever since I pitched a role and got the job! I never knew I had this skill but thanks to you I can put in words that makes so much sense and also be an agency influencer
Great article (not finished yet). My doubt is how to prevent from your boss or anybody else to take advantage from being high agency? I mean, someone can give you extra job that is not yours so you might work extra without proper recognition or compensation
Thanks for sharing Torsten! I’m now transitioning to a new for me role and this article is as relevant as it can be. Even more so, it made the think about my prior projects and, as hard as it is to admit, the blocker was actually me - not the other team members. 😱
I love this my only add is mostly a warning to women. DO NOT USE THIS AGENCY FOR TASKS THAT REQUIRE DOMESTIC LABOR AT WORK. Do not sign up to take agency on getting people to sign Tom's birthday card or cleaning up the station at the kitchen counter have been delivered. I've seen so many high agency women reduced to fancy maids and secretaries. Solve for the business drivers first.
🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
Absolutely love this. Great newsletter today.
Thanks Angus! It's kind of weird; on the one hand, the internet is full of posts about agency, on the other hand it feels like a topic that's still massively underexplored. I guess both can be true.
As a manager who frequently gets passed the monkey I’m sorely tempted to share this with a few people…
Please do 😄
Great (and detailed) post. I love your story at the start about Hannah and the other guy. It’s spot on.
As a leader I do want a good ROI on my time. But as I’ve gotten older realise the Lances of the world probably have some other skills to bring out with a bit more coaching. (most of the time :)
Oh for sure, being low-agency doesn't mean you don't have valuable skills. But if most people, or everyone, on your team is low-agency, you quickly become the bottleneck as the manager. You at least need some high-agency folks who can just go and run with topics so you have some free bandwidth to coach and support others.
The most satisfying scenario is where somebody starts low-agency and then develops into a high-agency person over time. I had a few folks on my teams that, in the beginning, needed almost daily check-ins to get stuff done, and in the end just owned entire topics autonomously and kept me in the loop with brief updates (and maybe an occasional problem-solving jam session).
All this sounds great, and I agree with all the points made. However, you seem convinced that every manager would love this, and this simply isn't the case. If you are someone who likes to get up and go, who likes to get things done, solve or manage problems, and you have a boss who doesn't want that, then you need to get a different boss, but that isn't always that easy. In 25 years of working in corporate settings, I have had more bosses who would prefer Lance to Hannah and actively undermine agency among their staff. Doesn't mean you give up being the person with agency, but the rosy picture of success you paint isn't always the reality.
Very much so. If you work for a Lance, Lance can feel quite intimidated if you're having agency Hannah. But as you said, if you have a boss who doesn't want that, then you need to get a different boss. Don't let them undermine or discredit your effort.
this is such a good post! wished i had read this much earlier in my career. wonder if you have anything to say about exercising agency vs managing time (and being selective in when and where to exercise high agency). I can imagine that if agency is like a muscle that can be developed, constant use can tire one out. In a bureaucratic environment especially, I have been trying to polish my thinking on how to best exercise my agency for most impact. Thank you again for the great insights 🙌🏾
This is interesting and I've experienced both in my career, including whole projects where the agency momentum took them all the way in one or other direction. But what leads people to be low agency? And do some folks have a head start on being high agency? My conclusions? The reasons can be systemic. Leaders need to take account of unconscious bias in organisational systems that enable some teams and individuals and hold others back.
I used to do this all the time, but didn’t get promoted and just got handed more work. Now I only do this when it’s related to the job I’m paid for or it will make my work better/easier. I’m not working for free and don’t do work for my boss or coworkers anymore.
this lacks first principal thinking and has patterns of corporate slop thinking
Like what? Any concrete point you want to make?
”Only a matter of time until Bali is full of agency coaches”
This is where I laughed and subscribed 😄
You wonderfully articulated what I have been feeling ever since I pitched a role and got the job! I never knew I had this skill but thanks to you I can put in words that makes so much sense and also be an agency influencer
Great piece
Great article, thank you for sharing! You've got an extra subscriber :)
Loved this! Thank you for stating it so clearly with the solutions.
Great article (not finished yet). My doubt is how to prevent from your boss or anybody else to take advantage from being high agency? I mean, someone can give you extra job that is not yours so you might work extra without proper recognition or compensation
Thanks for sharing Torsten! I’m now transitioning to a new for me role and this article is as relevant as it can be. Even more so, it made the think about my prior projects and, as hard as it is to admit, the blocker was actually me - not the other team members. 😱