THE IMPORTANCE OF A CLEAR ‘BIG ARROW’ DIRECTION

I read a lot to stay current and to be inspired. I saw this recently from Peter Bregman on the Harvard Business Review blog. It was too good not to share.Peter was facilitating a strategic planning workshop (as I often do) for a client. Members of the team, representing different parts of the company, were presenting their ideas for the coming year. Peter graphically represented what he heard in terms of the proposed directions like this.

What concerned him was that despite there being a clear and agreed upon broad direction for the overall organisation, the ideas were not aligned. He reminded the group of the direction that they had input to and had agreed upon. He then drew this.

He challenged them to make some decisions and consider the need to forgo some opportunities. Some of the team shifted direction, some ideas got canned. Peter then drew this.

He reminded the team that this is how they should be moving forward together, supporting each other and the overall organisation.

Do you have a big arrow? Every time you discuss opportunities and alternatives in the future, take some time to consider your big arrow.

Creating accountability

“The ancient Romans had a tradition: whenever one of their engineers constructed an arch, as the capstone was hoisted into place, the engineer assumed accountability for his work in the most profound way possible: he stood under the arch.”

~ Michael Armstrong

Can you imagine what it would be like in your organisation if no one ever uttered the words “that’s not my job"?

In organisations where there is a culture of accountability people tend to apply themselves more and perform at a higher level. They do this because they know if something goes wrong, it’s on their head (like the capstone). Leaders who are accountable for their actions gain respect and credibility. People want to follow this kind of leader.

In organisations where there is not a culture of accountability, people blame each other when things go wrong. People can under perform as there are no consequences for poor work. They make up all kinds of excuses to explain the result.  Leaders who lack accountability might look over their shoulder and see that there is no one behind them.

To create a culture of accountability make sure that you and everyone else in the organisation knows just what their job is and that they fully commit to seeing it through. As a leader, that’s your job.

DO THESE 3 THINGS AND WATCH YOUR PEOPLE GROW

Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon them and to let them know you trust them.

Booker T. Washington

A leader's number one job is to grow and develop their people. Do these three things and watch them respond.

1. Give them responsibility. I encourage leaders to delegate all of the tasks that someone else in the organisation can do and to focus just on just the tasks that only they can do. Work out what you are going to get someone else to do. Be specific about your expectations, the outcome required and the timeframe.

2. Trust them. This will take courage. You have to accept the risk that they may not get it 100% right. Unless people are given opportunities to shine they won't grow, so take the risk.

3. Support them. Set them up for success, not failure. Make sure that they have everything they need to do the job (time, skills, resources). Also offer to guide them as they go if they need it.
 
To be honest, this is not going to work every time with every person. You actually have to risk failure in order to go forward. In the majority of cases people will accept the responsibility and rise to the occasion. They grow in confidence and self belief. You get a more capable, engaged team. Everyone wins.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STRONG AND WEAK LEADERS

In my experience, everyone who really wants to be a better leader has some success. If you want to be an even stronger leader, understand these differences.

Respect vs Like. Strong leaders care more about being respected than being liked. Now, everyone wants to be liked but sometimes the need to be popular gets in the way of strong leadership.

Consistency. Weak leaders treat individuals differently. They have different sets of rules for perhaps people that they like or dislike and people that are pushovers or aggressive. Strong leaders are consistent with their values and how they deal with others.

Decisiveness. You might have heard of the ‘mirror manager.’ This person, when confronted with the need to make a decision says, “I’ll look into it.” Strong leaders are decisive. They get the facts, weigh up the alternatives, consider the risks and make a decision.

Courage. This is a constant in the life of a strong leader. My old mate Ambrose Redmoon said “courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear”. Strong leaders do stuff daily that they don’t want to, stuff that weak leaders put off. Like having a difficult conversation, like putting an end to office gossip, like making a tough call on a non-performing staff member.

Humility. Weak leaders reckon they know everything. There is nothing that they haven’t seen before. The last thing they would do is let people know that they weren’t perfect. Strong leaders ask for help. They surround themselves with good people and build them up so, as a team, everyone achieves more. It’s not all about them.

No matter where you are currently in terms of your leadership, strive to get fully charged. Let us know if we can help.

ONE QUESTION THAT LEADERS SHOULD BE ASKING THEIR PEOPLE

“What can I do to help you do your job?”

This is about

• finding out what’s going on at the frontline
• showing that you care, and
• taking responsibility for empowering your guys to do well.

This is not about

• promoting whinging
• lip service, or
• micro managing.

The challenge is, once you ask the question, what are you going to do about the answer. You might find that you need to support the person more, provide them with extra resources or offer training. Sound like hard work?

Consider the alternative. Don’t ask the question. Let the staff member underperform. Leave them feeling undervalued. Let them struggle. Nothing surer than they will become disengaged.

Be courageous – ask the question today!