The Road so far:
Part One: Vision Defining the Dream
Part Two: Inspiration Moving from “Me to We”
Your Action plan: Lead, Follow or Get out of the way
When it comes to action, we’ve all heard the saying. Guess what? It’s not just a saying. To be a good leader you have to knows when to lead, follow or get out of people’s way and let them do the things you need them to do. Theoretically, if you’ve got the right people in the right spot they’ll do their jobs with little advice from you. But that’s not always the case because as human beings, we bring all kinds of variables to the table and those variables can change in an instant. A contributing factor might be something as simple as not getting a good night’s sleep and being unable to concentrate on the task at hand. As the boss, it’s your job to recognize who needs what and then supply it.
How do you do it? It depends. It depends not only on the skill set but on the competency and maturity of your people. It depends on their work and life experiences and if they’ve ever been in a particular situation before. It depends on if they have the confidence to do what you need. In short it depends on you being able to recognize those variables that come with being human and being able to adapt to the situation at hand.
Once you are able to identify the situation and know what your people can do, you can move within a range of leadership techniques to get the best out of them. If you can’t (or won’t) adapt your job will be that much more difficult.
Let’s look at a new staff member who orders supplies for your department.
First week: Direct
- Take her to the supply room and show her what supplies she needs to keep in stock
- Tell her what suppliers she has to use and how much she can spend each month
- Set a monthly due date to submit orders to you for approval
- Review and approve all requisitions before she makes the purchase
Three months: Delegate
- Give her the monthly budget for orders
- Review and approve all requisitions before she submits the order
- Periodically walk through the supply room to see that the correct supplies are on hand
- Discuss the need to add or discontinue items
Six months: Coach
- Teach her how to analyze supply orders for the past year to spot trends in use and expenditures; ask for a monthly analysis
- Recommend that she develop a user survey to understand stock flow; review and recommend changes as needed before she distributes it
- Help prepare staff for possible changes
Nine months: Support
- Give her the responsibility, the tools , and authority to run the program as she sees fit
- Check in routinely to see if she needs help
The thing to remember is that as the leader, you still have overall responsibility for her performance. Don’t be afraid to move back and forth between the levels as needed. If she blows her budget two months in a row, retrain her until she gets it right. In the interim – start reviewing and approving purchases again. You can release the funds again when she can come in under budget (side note: don’t forget to document the need to retrain if it becomes a performance issue).
This example is pretty simple but it demonstrates how to progress through the levels of a situation and lead an employee from dependence to independence. Notice that the leader moves from telling the staff member what and how to do things to helping her meet her goals her way. As a leader, this is what you want – to get results without getting stuck in the details. After all, if you stay down in the weeds with her, you may as well be doing the job yourself.
Previous: The Road to Leadership 2: Inspiration
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