Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Jerry Scott. We hope you enjoy Jerry’s wisdom and perspective.
Like many leaders with decades of business and leadership experience, I humbly have no shortage of opinions regarding business issues on any given day. People generally don’t come to me for many technical issues, but for people or organizational issues I’m your man.
Last week I happened to remember to follow up on an issue where I had offered a suggestion, honestly thinking and assuming that it would be followed as a matter of course. It was a reasonable and well-founded opinion, freely given and to my surprise it was summarily ignored. Maybe ignored, maybe blown off, or maybe just ruled as the wrong decision in the manager’s view.
“So what did you decide to do about that?” She matter-of-factly responded, "We decided to do this.” The “we” indicated a co-conspirator. Perhaps another manager in league together to ignore my suggestion. Then in one of those beautifully unscripted moments when your true feelings leak out, totally unscrubbed, I pretty much laughed in her face. Couldn’t help it. Cracked me up even more so because it was the second time that week one of my managers had completely ignored a suggestion I took as a given. Lord knows I love when developing leaders start coming into their own. It warms my heart.
In many ways the second hardest thing to do as a leader is to let go. You have to let go and allow developing leaders to make decisions, or they will not grow as leaders. They will not gain confidence. People learn through doing and by making mistakes. They must learn what it means and feels like to take responsibility for the results and outcomes of their decisions. And if they don’t learn this you are crippling them as leaders.
In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins describes a leadership model he calls “a genius with a thousand helpers.” This style describes a leader who is great at what they do, and therefore, they make all the important decisions. When such questions arise, the group must rely on the leader for direction because, in fact, they have been trained to do so. They have learned to bring every substantive issue to the leader and to never make a move on something important without the leader’s approval or buy in.
While this style of leadership may be effective in building a company under the watchful eye of the genius, once the span of control goes beyond them, and the future of the company rests with layers of other managers, invariably the gears begin to grind. Given this, no true leaders have been developed to carry the organization forward beyond the career of the genius or beyond their ability to directly manage outcomes.
In my career I have seen just about every dysfunction known to man in this area just because it is so hard to let go. When you give people decision-making authority, you leave open the possibility they may be wrong and it will go badly, reflecting back on you. You are ultimately responsible, right? Letting go means allowing for the possibility that mistakes will be made and being willing to accept responsibility. It also means accepting the possibility the results may be less than perfect, or at least what you think would be perfect if you made all the decisions. Letting go is tricky business.
If managers lack a certain degree of confidence, or they have been burned in the past for mistakes, they often bring up issues with you to see if you will tell them what to do. They look for signs, indications, head nods, or shakes to try and read the tea leaves to see what you would do. How to offer counsel and advice without making all the important decisions is a level of leadership finesse that is hard to come by. But it starts with being aware and letting them talk first. What would you do? What do you think? How do you think we should handle this?
This ultimately brings me to what I think is the hardest thing to do as a leader - to systematically and with intention become dispensable. Grow leaders who can drive the departments or organization forward. Grow leaders with good decision making skills, rooted in a solid understanding of the mission and strategy of the organization. Grow leaders that are not afraid to make mistakes, to innovate, try new things, or to take responsibility for the outcomes of their decisions. And finally grow leaders that know how to teach this to the next generation of leaders.
If you develop a self-sustaining and perpetuating leadership engine, you will eventually be dispensable. And you know what? That’s ok with me. My team can wrap a blanket around my shoulders and say, “Come on Sachem. We have a nice log by the fire you can sit on while we take care of business.”
What’s The Risk?
For organizations to survive and thrive into the future, leadership potential must be identified, nurtured, and allowed to grow with intention as a solid and actionable strategy. It must be led by executives who are willing to bring out the best in people by letting them practice leadership skills with real consequences on the line.
Another thing Jim Collins said is that great leaders take the blame for failure and give away the credit for success. Standing at the podium in the spotlight praising your team is not giving away the credit. It’s allowing them to share in your reflected glory. Giving away the credit means they are standing up there while you sit in the back smiling and clapping.
This content was written and shared by guest blogger, Jerry Scott. Connect with Jerry on LinkedIn and Twitter.
