Don't be a leadership hog
by Miki Saxon“Leadership is like manure, it produces the best results when spread around.”— me
Yup, I said that to a CEO with an old world belief in rigid hierarchical management because I needed to shock him into actually hearing what I was saying in order for him to recognize the need to adjust his MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy)™ for today’s workers. I can’t remember reading or hearing it anywhere, so I think it really is original—and definitely true.
There are major advantages to spreading leadership opportunities around and cultivating Paul Wright’s “leadership for instances” (9/17) approach.
Foremost is the fact that if you want to hire these days you need to offer your workers meaningful opportunities to grow or they’ll walk. Growing includes leading and managing—even if it’s only a group of one, themselves.
It means pushing responsibility further and further down in your organization, and not just the responsibility, but also the authority required to accomplish whatever it is.
That’s where most leaders/managers blow it, they assign the task, but then require the person to keep running to them for permission to do each step. Sure, sometimes you shouldn’t hand over total control, but you can hand over enough to get the job done.
Even when it comes to money, which is often the biggest hang-up, you can still do it. Create a budget for that project ad give the responsibility for it to the person you’ve assigned to do it. Let her decide how to spend it without interference or “help” from you—unless she asks. And if she goes over budget don’t freak out. It’s not that much (or shouldn’t be) in the big picture and if you freak she may never recover. She already knows that she messed up, so beating on her will accomplish nothing. Sit down calmly and let her walk you through the thinking and decision-making that led to being over budget, discuss it and lead her through the pattern that would have succeeded.
And if it turns out that the error is yours and the estimate was wrong, admit it, don’t try and convince her that someone else could have done it. People aren’t stupid, she’ll know that the discussion ended as a CYA function for you—as will everyone in your group, since stuff like this never stays secret.
Other great reasons to spread it around are increased productivity, more employee satisfaction, fewer logjams when you’re out sick or traveling, easier staffing and less turnover.
Finally, spread it around because that’s what great leaders/managers do to they foster the growth of the next great leaders/managers.
September 27th, 2007 at 10:08 am
Like the quote, and agree with your underlying principle… But the quote itself is actually not original… Francis Bacon (English statesman, essayist and philosopher- 16th century) said almost exactly the same thing, except in reference to Money… Specifically: “Money is like muck (manure), not good except it be spread.”
September 27th, 2007 at 10:56 am
Whoops, totally forgot Bacon. But I do think that “leadership” is still too elitist and not spread around nearly enough, so my quote, while being derivative is also original:)
September 30th, 2007 at 8:04 am
Miki,
I agree with the principle of spreading leadership. Nicely stated. Couldn’t agree more.
I have some issue with the manure metaphor. I posted on this at http://www.leadquietly.com
Thanks for sowing the seeds.
Don
September 30th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Don, In your post you say that you prefer butter instead of manure as the metaphor. Granted, butter may be more appetizing, and you can spread it on lots of different things and they’ll taste way better, but it doesn’t really cut it as a fertilizer. And that’s what it’s really all about—helping people grow.