Traits of top performers
3 ways to be High Agency
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I became an Amazon VP because I took action, and then took responsibility for them.
Amazon called this "Ownership and Bias for Action" another term is “High Agency”.
Whatever you call it, it means acting on what is in your control rather than blaming things you do not control.
3 ways to develop High Agency:
Stop blaming external factors.
Stop focusing on what others “should” do.
Know when to step back or pause.
Becoming “High Agency” will give you a huge step up in your career. It is highly valued by corporate leaders and will make you a more capable startup founder.
The 3 ways to be High Agency:
1. Stop blaming external factors
It is easy and seductive to blame our problems on outside forces:
A slow economy for our lack of a job.
Corporate greed or mismanagement for our layoff.
A promotion freeze or slow growth for our career stagnation.
Poor leadership or a bad boss for our workplace frustrations.
A bad plan for the project’s failure.
I could list 100 more common things we blame. Some are so common they are memes: Sales blames Engineering —> Engineering blames Sales —> both blame PMs —> everyone blames HR —> and the list goes on.
Feel free to add your version in the comments!
The truth is, in all of these situations we have some control. And, that control is often enough to influence the outcomes over time.
Focusing on external blame is a trap because it leads us to wait on something we do not control, and causes us to believe that there is nothing we could or should do until the external problem changes.
It causes complacency and stagnation.
Instead, focus on the fact that you always have some control (read my post on the Amazon “secret” of controllable inputs for your career).
Focus on what YOU can do.
Your Action: Pretend for a minute that an external problem you are facing will never change, but that you must succeed despite it. What can you do? Then go do it!
Life is full of "unfair" setbacks, things we did nothing to cause and don’t deserve. We can wallow in frustration or move on.
Top performers may mourn setbacks briefly (face and process the emotions), but then they take action.
I hope this advice helps you plan ahead for your career. If you’re looking for help growing in your organization and leveling up your career, consider one of my on-demand Leadership Development courses (includes Cracking the C-Suite, Managing Up Successfully, Leadership Networing, and more).
2. Stop focusing on what others "should" do
Focusing on what others “should” do is another form of blaming an external factor.
In this case, rather than the external factor being something impersonal like the company or the economy, we seek a specific person.
We imagine that the right way for our problem to be solved is for this person to do something they are not doing, and we justify our desires by deciding that they “should” do this. We decide that it is their job, that they owe it to us.
The most dangerous part of this trap is that you may be “right!”
It may be true that things “should” be the way you say they should be:
Workplaces “should” be free of bias.
Managers “should” help their team members grow.
Companies “should” care about work / life balance.
Other groups and leaders “should” care about what is best and right, not what is easiest for them.
Feel free to add your favorite “should” in the comments
High Agency top performers acknowledge what others should do, but do not wait for them to do it. They realize that waiting on others is giving up their own agency.
Choosing to act on what you control does not mean "accepting" or "agreeing with" the failures of others. It is not an endorsement of what is “wrong”, and it does not mean you are giving up on future change. It means you are getting on with your life and career, and influencing what you can.
The more you do for yourself, the more power and influence you will have to change the world in the future.
Your Action: Stop waiting on others to do what they “should.” Assume they may never do it, and act like they won’t. Start taking action on what you control now. (watch my podcast with Lenny Rachitsky on taking control of your career).
3. Know when to step back or pause
Having high agency is not just always taking action. It means choosing when to act.
When I was at Amazon, I provided the words “an owner never says ‘that’s not my job’” to the Leadership Principle (LP) “Ownership” (read the story here). Those words mean that an owner should never just let something drop by saying “It’s not my problem.”