Truth 68. Your team can lead you to greatness

Probably one of the most enduring models of pre-engagement business cultures is the idea that leadership flows downward only. The longer you stick with this form of gravity-bound management, the longer you’ll be enjoying only partial engagement. Engaged employees ready to take the lead on projects they own will chaff under old leadership styles. Let your people take the lead, and you’ll be amazed at how far they’ll take you on the strength of their own vision:

• Let them know you want to intentionally pass on some of the power. Get their buy-in on this plan. But don’t expect a unanimous approval. Some employees—no matter how self-directed they are, in fact—may be uncomfortable with the idea that the power will be disseminated throughout the team rather than concentrated with just you.

Let your people take the lead, and you’ll be amazed at how far they’ll take you on the strength of their own vision.

• Brainstorm with your entire group on what shared leadership will look like in your team. Will they have the latitude to tell each other what to do? Will they be individually responsible for making important presentations up the managerial food chain? Will you be comfortable letting your direct reports speak one on one with your boss and boss’s boss without your being there?

• Find out what their personal hidden beliefs are about leadership and management. Do they think of being the boss as a positive role? Or as a policing job? Or do they prefer leaders to be merely facilitators? Can they devise a set of values and expectations of what they want from someone who has the leadership role within the group? Can all members find a new, comfortable role for themselves in this new context—including those who prefer to simply report to you?

Identify what behaviors of your own you’re going to have to change. As you transform your employees into leaders, you may have to get used to being a follower again. Can you tolerate that? You may have to get in the habit of giving them more information more quickly than you used to. They may expect you to explain yourself more now, when before all you had to say was “Because I said so.”

You may have to get used to being a follower again.

• Work with your team members to discover what additional training they need to exercise their new leadership responsibilities well. Can you create a budget for courses on presentation techniques, having difficult conversations, using time effectively, etc.? Some courses, such as presentation skills, should be taught be experts. But you can also create a self-study program, such as a book club, to help your staff members build their competencies and understanding of what it takes to become true leaders as a journey of personal growth. Brown-bag lunch discussions of books they read as a group will help them see how this journey challenges their coworkers as well as themselves.

• Learn to consider your team members as an advisory board. Keep in mind that they are probably more expert in their particular field than you are. While they may still have more tactical-level responsibilities in your department, they can also lend their expertise to you and the group as a whole. This added perspective will give you the chance to see issues and concerns in fresh new ways—which will then ultimately help you make better decisions.

They are probably more expert in their particular field than you are.

The German author and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote, “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they’re capable of being.” In the same light, treat people as if they are already the leaders they’re capable of being, and they’ll help you become the manager of a team of inspired change makers.