A Simple Leadership Template

“Leadership” and “simple” probably don’t go together very well in the same sentence. Who in their right mind would believe that leadership is simple? The challenge, however, is in training a new leader – where do you start?

Take a quick peek at Amazon – one might start with one of over 60,000 books on leadership (yes, really). If that isn’t confusing enough, you don’t even think about using a search engine on the word “leader.” Google returns over 230 million hits (surprisingly, the third entry is for a bike store – what did that cost?). A look at the first two entries on Google – Wikipedia and Merriam-Webster – are descriptive, not instructive, but if you go down that road – defining “leadership” – you will find a maze of different definitions for the word “leader,” and a number of different types of leader.

The bottom line? Leadership is anything but simple.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t cut it in the real world. Managers need direction. It’s not the technical aspects of the management role that tend to create the most challenges, it’s the leadership aspects of the role. Again, the problem is where to start? How can we get a new leader moving in the right direction?

Leadership 101: Three Keys to Getting Started

Stepping into a leadership role presents a number of potential challenges, but the very first, and singularly most important, is the challenge of creating trust with your new team. In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni pinpoints the first problem of any dysfunctional team as the lack of trust. Indeed, the failure to create trust between leader and follower negates the ability of the leader to have any influence whatsover – the very definition of “leadership.”

For most new leaders, then, the first priority is to develop trust. The three steps outlined below will provide a simple, effective template to developing trust, creating direction, and engaging your employees – even as you are adapting to your new role and “learning the ropes.”

1. Make communication your first priority.

Yes, it sounds simple. Simplistic, even. Perhaps you were anticipating something more earth-shattering, but the stark truth is I have yet to consult with a company that doesn’t have communication issues. Usually significant communication issues. Even companies that work hard at making communication a priority will readily admit the challenges associated with doing so. Research indicates that clear, consistent communication is vital to organizational health, yet it might be the most consistent challenge in any organization, of any size.

How do you make communication a priority? First, make sure you think about communication every single day. Ask yourself these questions: Did I communicate well? Who does this (decision, project, request, etc.) impact? Who needs to be apprised of these developments? Does everyone that needs to know have a clear understanding of the issues and the answers?

Second, make sure that all meetings get email follow-ups: provide a big-picture summary of the meeting, review who is responsible for what, and make sure that key details are clearly defined for everyone involved.

Third, create one-on-one meetings with your direct reports and communicate face-to-face. There is no substitute whatsoever for one-on-one communication, but you have to learn to focus as much on listening as you do on talking. You will find that your communication will improve in direct proportion to your ability to create a dialogue with your employees.

2. Give your employees something tangible to focus on.

Savvy leaders understand intuitively that people work more effectively when they have something clear to focus on – and to believe in. There is a significant difference between simply going to work and doing one’s job, and working with purpose. That “purpose” is an ideal, or a an elevating goal, or a clearly defined finish line that allows employees to contribute to something worthwhile.

A high-profile illustration is provided by Ford Motor Company’s recent turnaround:

…Ford seemed on death’s door. It suffered a $12.6 billion loss in 2006, when industry-wide car sales were strong. But last year Ford became the only U.S. car company to avoid bankruptcy, and actually posted a $2.7 billion profit… Ford also has begun regaining market share after years of decline. It’s even possible that when auto makers report their February U.S. sales this coming week, Ford might top General Motors for the first time in more than 80 years…

Ford’s recent success is already amazing considering the prior half-dozen years of near-fatal decline. If it continues, Mr. Mulally [Ford's CEO] will be credited with one of the great turnarounds in corporate history. His method has been to simplify, relentlessly and systematically, a business that had grown way too complicated and costly to be managed effectively.

“Improve Focus, Simplify Operations,” reads one of Mr. Mulally’s (Ford CEO) many charts, which he repeats like a sacred mantra.

Whether you lead a a small department, small company, or serve as the CEO of a major corporation, this is a powerful principle. Create a focal point – a clear objective – and get everybody rowing in the same direction at the same time toward that objective. Determine very early what the focus for your employees should be, and make it your mantra.

When Howard Shultz took over as the CEO of Starbucks, he made the company’s vision very clear: “We are not in the coffee business serving customers. We are in the customer business, serving coffee.” This was an incredibly effective way of guiding the day-to-day work of every single employee – the focus was on customer satisfaction first and the product second.

What is your team’s focus?

3. Give your employees a voice.

The third key to getting started as a leader is to encourage your employees to provide input. Effective leaders know that employees generally know as much or more about what works than most managers. They do the work every day; they hear the complaints from customers; they see the limitations of the current methods. Unfortunately, most managers don’t LISTEN. They don’t see the value in co-opting each employee’s ideas and opinions, usually because they have a mistaken notion about what management and leadership are all about.

On the other hand, effective leaders actively solicit the opinions of employees, and carefully consider their input, as described in a recent Center for Creative Leadership article:

“In most organizations, the costs of command-and-control are not accounted for — we don’t see what is not being done; we don’t measure missed opportunities; we can’t track potential efficiencies.”

As a result, top-down firms suffer from what Carney calls low “execution capacity.” “Whether working on a mundane task or a major corporate initiative, employees who aren’t engaged — and more so the actively disengaged ones — don’t go the extra mile that is so often critical to meeting deadlines or avoiding penalties or the loss of a customer,” he notes.

In contrast, when leaders give people control over their work, stop telling them how to do their jobs and focus on the goals, the hidden costs are replaced with numerous benefits. Employee stress goes down, absenteeism decreases and engagement goes up. Productivity improves and innovation is possible.

“Anybody who does a job eight hours a day is going to see ways in which that job could be improved or simplified,” Carney explains. “Giving them the freedom to do so can, when multiplied across an entire organization, reap enormous gains.”

Giving your employees a voice doesn’t mean that you will be able to accommodate every suggestion, or implement every idea. However, some great ideas will come out of those conversations, and, more importantly, your employees will recognize that you value their opinions. As there are very few things that are more powerful to a leader than to create a culture where individuals are valued, this is a powerful first step in creating a strong leader.

Conclusion

You will likely make a lot of mistakes in your leadership journey, but those mistakes will be fewer and less costly if you get started down the right path. Clearly, each of these three keys can be misused, even abused; but a strong and humble effort in these three areas will move you rapidly down the leadership path and prepare you for the many leadership lessons that are sure to come your way.

Tagged as: Culture, Feedback, Leadership, purpose