Ten things I've learned as a mid-level leader

Issue 176: A few leadership lessons you won't necessarily read in HBR

I (Dom) have been reflecting this weekend on things I have learned over the past few years as a mid-level leader. They deserve to be elaborated in a longer post, but I thought I would share ten lessons in nascent form while they are on my mind.

1. You don’t need to have the last word — in fact, it’s usually best not to.

2. Everything will take longer than you think it should, and that’s ok. Keep chipping away and most things eventually hit a tipping point toward success.

3. The person who writes the first draft has inordinate influence.

   

   GPT-5’s interpretation of the lesson that the person who writes the first draft will have an outside influence on the final product.

4. If you understand and play within the hard (non-negotiable) rules, you have a ton of discretion to do what you want.

5. People will surprise you everyday — with their self-centeredness and, more importantly, their generosity.

6. Transparency is easy to espouse and hard to create. It takes creativity and effort to keep busy people in the loop.

7. P…