I think a leader’s job is to remove obstacles (i.e. move the cliff) in the pursuit of helping their team’s succeed. What I have learned is that leaders have fewer tools to do this than employees believe. Leaders (especially in large companies) have far less control than their position on the org chart would suggest.

This is especially true in “bottom’s up” cultures where decision making is pushed down in the organization. Even in top down cultures where decision making is gated through leaders it still presents challenges.

The best leaders can really only offer three things to teams:

1. Context - Leaders almost always have more information than teams. This is because they are often at the nexus of multiple teams and efforts having a much more horizontal view. A large amount of the value a good leader provides is merely sharing context. A leader should think that if they have piece of information or context that can help a team be succesful then they need to get that information to them as quickly as possible.
   The anti pattern here are leaders who horde information as currency in some sort of power game. Where they wield information as a weapon. Keeping teams in the dark by withholding information, keeping teams uninformed or allowing teams to pursue futile efforts. These are terrible people and you shouldn’t work for them.

2. Expertise - Leaders, typically, have the benefit of experience and some expertise that comes from time. This expertise is hard fought and hard won. It is usually in the form of pattern recognition. Leaders can share expertise by saying “I’ve seen this before and here is what you may encounter.” or “Let me tell you what this hasn’t worked in the past so you can avoid those pitfalls”. It is important that expertise not become dogma because value always moves in systems.

3. Influence - In all human systems influence comes in two forms, structural and relational. Structural influence is deigned by the org chart or title. It’s power is dependent on the person’s power inside an organization’s structure. It is often bound to a person’s reporting chain and its power diminishes considerably when trying to influence someone who doesn’t report to them. This is one reason people empire build. To increase their structural influence and power.
   
   Another form of influence is based on the relationships the leader has. Relational influence travels further inside a company where the individual can persuade others outside their reporting chain to do things. Relationships are built over long periods of time, often based on trust and a track record of integrity. This is very powerful but very inefficient as the organization grows. In rapidly scaling orgs, things are so dynamic that it is hard for leaders to amass reputational capital and often need to lean on structural power, even with its limits.

Good leaders wield these three tools in a variety of ways constantly adjusting the mix for each situation.