When you imagine your best leadership moments, do you picture yourself casting a compelling vision or checking items off a carefully organized plan? Stanford professor Huggy Rao uses the metaphors of poetry and plumbing to describe two essential dynamics in leadership.

Poetry is about the “big picture” and the vision. Poetry inspires and energizes people to stretch beyond the status quo. Plumbing is more mundane. Plumbing is about the day-to-day tasks involved in executing the vision. Plumbing-focused leaders think about meetings and metrics, planning and follow-up.

It turns out that poetry and plumbing are both necessary to leadership. We’ve all heard great ideas that never get off the ground. It’s also true that efficient systems can lack inspiring purpose. Poetry and plumbing work in tandem to produce faithful results.

The book of Nehemiah is a good example of poetry and plumbing. When Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall around the city, he did not find much in the way of raw materials or enthusiasm. He started with plumbing. He conducted a secret, late-night inspection. Then he moved to poetry, but his poetry was grounded in concrete realities he discovered during the inspection.

Nehemiah made an inspiring speech (2:17-20). He pointed out the current state of the wall and challenged the people to rise above their disgrace. Nehemiah assured the people that God’s hand was on the mission, and they had the support of King Artaxerxes. With faith in the vision, the people began to work. They worked on different sections of the wall to complete the reconstruction in an orderly way. Everyone worked toward a shared goal. In 52 days, they rebuilt the wall.

Leaders typically lean toward poetry or plumbing. The key is to identify your natural tendency — and then develop strategies to help you recognize what’s needed and when.

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Before you go

Rao’s metaphors resonate with me. I’ve had to learn to balance poetry with plumbing. So often, in vision or strategy meetings, someone with a plumbing focus will push back against the poetry because they need to know how the vision will be executed. Rao suggests that we don’t try to do both activities at the same time. If you’re going to have a brainstorming and visioning meeting, focus on brainstorming and visioning. Do the plumbing work in a meeting set aside for plumbing. You may even need to mix up the people in the room so you can accomplish what needs to be done.

How would you describe yourself? Your team? Who are the poets and who are the plumbers?

You can always reach me and the Alban Weekly team at alban@duke.edu. Until next week, keep leading!