Real Leaders Let Go

The number one complaint I hear from senior public leaders is about time – or a lack thereof. Which isn’t really about time, of course, but space. No time to work ‘on the business’ because BAU gobbles it all up.

The answer to this is surprisingly simple – get out of the weeds, operate at your paygrade and delegate the ‘doing’ to your capable, hamstrung managers.

Trust me when I tell you this: they are crying out for the permission to get on with it. They’re not afraid of the change you want to roll out. They’re frustrated by a lack of certainty and direction.

I regularly see senior leaders signing off low-level decisions, attending meetings and making project calls that should be handled by managers two tiers down. Ironically, these are often the same leaders who are frustrated that their team won’t prioritise or take ownership.

In Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Dan Pink outlines three key elements to human motivation:

1) Autonomy – The desire to have control of our lives
2) Mastery – The urge to improve
3) Purpose – The desire to be in service of something greater.

What does all this mean, put together? That direction is critical – but it’s not synonymous with prescription.

At General Motors, the dress code is only two words: ‘Dress appropriately.”

When asked about the policy, GM’s Chief Executive, Mary Barra said: “You really need to make sure your managers are empowered – because if they cannot handle ‘dress appropriately’, what other decisions can they handle? And I realised that often, if you have a lot of overly prescriptive policies and procedures, people will live down to them.”

When things are complicated, it makes sense that we cling to control. You might avoid a few mistakes this way, but the price is high. When we hold on too tight, we stifle innovation, culture and growth in the process. Motivation drops off, and our customers and community are the ones that feel it.

Like parenting, relationships and pretty much all things involving people, trust goes both ways… and someone has to go first.

Real leaders trust first. Let some things go.