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As a leader, we have to do whatever it takes to motivate, push, inspire, coach, and develop our team... to bring them to places they've never been. To push them outside their comfort zone. To show them the way to greatness. How do we do this?
There are 3 sides to a leader - who we are. who we want to be. who we need to be.
The most important of the 3 sides of a leader is who they NEED to be. This is why being a leader is so challenging-- a lot of times, who we NEED to be is not who we naturally are. A leader who is naturally relationship-oriented sometimes needs to be more of a driver when put in position to fix a process that is broken. A leader who is naturally a strong driver for results needs to be more relationship-oriented when put in a position of addressing culture/morale problems. A leader who is naturally more hands-off sometimes needs to be more micro-managerial when they are given a team that has never been held accountable.
This is why leadership can be a curse - it's hard to alter our natural style/approach to fit what a team needs... But, the best leaders have the ability to do it.
Take a dialed, solid team. The leader of this team doesn't need to be micro-managerial, but instead be more of a cheerleader and guider. The leader of this team can take a step back and allow the team members to flourish, create and implement ideas, be innovative and creative. This team is self-directed.
Take a team that has been struggling and unaccountable for quite some time. The leader of this team needs to be micro-managerial, needs to over-validate, needs to be more aggressive in driving results, and needs to be extremely close to each team member's development. Even though the team may totally dislike and feel annoyed with how close the leader is to their work, in the end when the team becomes dialed and the team members find themselves so much stronger, on point and better leaders themselves, they will thank their leader for being so involved and hands-on. And the ones that can't take the heat will eventually walk out of the kitchen anyway (which is a good thing). Once this team becomes solid, it is now on the right path to become a self-directed team... and the leader can now start taking steps back into a cheerleader/guider role.
One goal of leadership is to develop teams so that they can function just as well (if not better) without the leader present... to develop their team so much that they can say.."shit, who needs a leader when we got our team?"
We know that we, as leaders, have done all we can do for our team when they are now the leader of the team. And before you know it, the entire team is made up of leaders... Who needs followers? I don't. I need leaders.
And it's my job to create those leaders.
This is why leadership can be a curse - it's hard to alter our natural style/approach to fit what a team needs... But, the best leaders have the ability to do it.
Take a dialed, solid team. The leader of this team doesn't need to be micro-managerial, but instead be more of a cheerleader and guider. The leader of this team can take a step back and allow the team members to flourish, create and implement ideas, be innovative and creative. This team is self-directed.
Take a team that has been struggling and unaccountable for quite some time. The leader of this team needs to be micro-managerial, needs to over-validate, needs to be more aggressive in driving results, and needs to be extremely close to each team member's development. Even though the team may totally dislike and feel annoyed with how close the leader is to their work, in the end when the team becomes dialed and the team members find themselves so much stronger, on point and better leaders themselves, they will thank their leader for being so involved and hands-on. And the ones that can't take the heat will eventually walk out of the kitchen anyway (which is a good thing). Once this team becomes solid, it is now on the right path to become a self-directed team... and the leader can now start taking steps back into a cheerleader/guider role.
One goal of leadership is to develop teams so that they can function just as well (if not better) without the leader present... to develop their team so much that they can say.."shit, who needs a leader when we got our team?"
We know that we, as leaders, have done all we can do for our team when they are now the leader of the team. And before you know it, the entire team is made up of leaders... Who needs followers? I don't. I need leaders.
And it's my job to create those leaders.
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