“Why when I hire a pair of hands, do they come with a brain attached?” What a strong reminder from Henry Ford of how leadership is challenging.
Whether you want to be a leader or not, it’s beneficial to know if people want to follow you. My intention is to provide awareness, so you can take action. It may sting, but it will accelerate your success.
There are three signs to look for that it’s time to adjust your approach to leadership.
1. You always win.
It’s helpful when I have the privilege to do real-time coaching and shadow people with positional power, such as the C-suite, surgeon leaders and elite performers. One common thread is that no matter the situation or conversation, they win. Not only do they win, they almost never realize that when they are contributing emotional and purposeful impact, someone is losing.
When a person feels like they “lose,” they will stop trying to help you win.
2. You change meeting dates and times based on your priorities.
You determine that it’s more important to do something other than keep your commitment to meet with someone who reports to you. It may very well be true that your CEO calls you or something comes up that you view as a business priority. And it’s completely normal to adapt and shift meetings. But what’s not business beneficial is if it’s a pattern and not an exception. The message it sends to other people is they aren’t important and they aren’t valued. Worse, they are left with ambiguity, the enemy of performance. Employees start to complain and create the story of being left on an island.
The reality is that people below you may have been looking forward to the conversation, had an innovative idea or needed your support. Rather than being focused on the business, they focus on what they aren’t getting. We all need to adjust, but know the impact of your decisions. Anything you unscheduled, reschedule. It may also be an opportunity to revisit the commitments you make and schedule fewer meetings.
3. You believe the biggest problem you have is people don’t take ownership.
A common challenge, where people focus on the symptoms and not the solution, is ownership. If you consistently think that people just don’t step up and take initiative, it may be the case that you are a “fixer.” You are highly confident and competent at making decisions, and people have learned to just sit back and be comfortable with a setback.
Leaders need to communicate what they mean by ownership and create opportunities to take on ownership. Elite performers get to where they are because they think, feel and move fast. That will get you where you want to go, but when you are there, you’re going to need others to contribute and feel that they can contribute to the organization’s success.
Accepting there is a challenge is the first step to solving a challenge. My intention is to help leaders realize the opportunity to create an environment where people want to contribute to success. Google discovered that who is on a team is less important than how a team functions. That finding reinforces the importance of being a strong leader who creates a strong team. Psychological safety, which is helping people feel encouraged to take risks without being embarrassed or feeling insecure, was the No. 1 predictor of a successful team.
The Solution
If you find these signs are true of you, opportunity lies ahead. As a leader, you determine how your team functions and feels. A simple strategy is communicating that you want to lead the team in a way that will focus on collective success.
Create a team tally of three areas you want to improve and measure them monthly. Sample questions are: On a scale of 0 (low) to 10 (high), 1) What’s your level of comfort taking a risk? 2) How frequently do you get to use your strengths on the team? 3) How frequently do you provide feedback to your team leader?
The lower the scores, the more you want to work with your team to identify what you can do to improve. After any of the three items are consistently receiving an 8 or higher, add another team-identified behavior to the list. You will create expectations and a culture of psychological safety and providing feedback and advice.
People work hard at what’s on their scorecard. If you really want to have a positive impact and get a return on effort, put together that team tally. You will notice people contribute more and make a commitment to their own improvement.
Dr.Rob Fazio, OnPoint Advising, has over 20 years of experience advising on power, influence, and motivation with elite and emerging talent.