Whatever position you occupy formally, a leader’s greatest achievement is the support of his team members and the ability to persuade them to become leaders themselves without power. Here are some practical tips on how to work with people from the book Never Lead Alone.
1. Turn Gossip into Gold
Negative comments, whining, complaining, and the habit of playing the victim are all poison to any initiative aimed at positive change. Whenever someone says something unpleasant about your mutual colleague, reframe the conversation so that it leads to positive action. For example, one of my teammates recently sent me this message, “Is Thomas no longer in charge of data entry on the website?” “What do you mean?” – I interrogated. “He seems to be slacking off lately. Maybe he’s focused on another assignment, or he’s been allowed to not enter new data right away?”
Clearly, this member of our team was trying to veiledly complain to his boss about a colleague. And, believe me, it was very easy to get sucked into the quagmire of misconduct at that point. I really had to fight the urge to immediately write to Thomas the potboiler and ask him, so to speak, severely. But I stopped myself halfway through, realizing that this was, in fact, a great chance to raise the level of commitment to our company.
And I wrote not to Thomas, but to the guy who had complained about him, “I think what you meant to say was that you’re concerned that Thomas seems to be too swamped with work to do all his errands well. I’ve noticed, too, that he’s been lagging on data entry lately. Would you share your thoughts on that and enlighten me on his priorities before I contact him and offer my support or find out what we can do to help him get back on track?”
Just like that, taking a step back, I realized that I didn’t need to get involved at all in this case. So I continued: “You have everything you need to take further action. Just talk to Thomas. Find out what’s going on in his life, see if we need to reassess the division of responsibilities on the team. If so, encourage him to participate in our next teleconference. For the sake of the success of our mission, take responsibility and help Thomas understand his situation. And I’ll be happy to hear what you’ve accomplished at next week’s teleconference. By the way, why don’t you two take a moment and discuss the problem with the whole team, especially if you think it would be good for her and Thomas? So if such a discussion doesn’t take place at the next teleconference, I’ll assume you’ve settled it without us.”
In the end, complaining about data entry delays was a reason for these two team members to evolve and grow.
Don’t let yourself become a butt plug in every barrel. But don’t become a passive participant in events by ignoring problems either. Be aware of your responsibility-the leader’s responsibility to elevate his or her team members.
2. Discuss team members behind their backs only to serve them
Whenever
you have a problem with a teammate, I highly recommend sitting down with them privately and talking about it as amicably as possible. But before you do this, it sometimes makes sense to gather more information by consulting with a few other colleagues – but certainly with the intention of helping the person you feel needs it.
The main thing in such cases is not to fall into the bad trap of discussing and criticizing people behind their backs.
When talking about someone behind their back, be transparent about the sincerity and purity of your intentions. I believe such preparatory conversations are the only situations in which it is permissible to discuss team members behind their backs, because then you are doing it in good faith. When we take responsibility for the success of all team members, we have an obligation to help them grow, develop, and reach their full potential.
By the way, it is quite likely that this person will find out that you have sought advice from his or her colleagues. But if your intentions are pure, that shouldn’t worry you too much. You yourself will have to decide whether the person you are discussing with others is psychologically ready for such a development. Sometimes it is better to admit to him yourself that you previously asked about him colleagues, because you wanted to collect all the facts, because your goal – to further strengthen the successful relationship with him. You don’t have to do anything secretly, and it’s not right.
Ineffective team members are usually complained about secretly, behind their backs, dragging another colleague or boss into a corner. Worse, usually two colleagues only gossip that the third one’s work leaves a lot to be desired, without even trying to rectify the situation. And frankly, most of us have done it. But by doing so, we tend to absolve ourselves of the responsibility of supporting that team member and helping him or her become more effective. And that, you must agree, is not good leadership.
3. Become a coach to those who are most at risk
If a team member is particularly valuable to your mission but is failing, constantly causing problems, or even risking being fired, remember: a true leader will not let anyone fall behind. Climbing higher and higher together means climbing together. If any of your people are in trouble, call on all your talents and skills in ministry, willingness to share and caring for people, use the tribe effectively for the good of the tribe and bring the lost sheep back into the flock.
4. Create a tipping
point
You may already know who your first co-empowerment partners will be, or you may already have a strong co-empowerment relationship with someone. I can’t stress enough how important it is to increase the permeability, service, sharing and caring in these relationships. In fact, building on those first few strong, co-creative relationships will produce 10x the results.
As you make a relationship-building action plan for each of your projects, mark the point where you will have built a co-creative relationship with five percent of the names on your list of partners. And engage them in a way that will engage about 30 percent more of your colleagues in that relationship. Just keep inviting your team members to co-create – and before you know it, you’ll quickly have an entire tribe of people in your workplace speaking the same language and leading the way without any formal authority.
And never wave your hand at those who at first are the most resistant to change.
From the book Never Lead Alone.
The post How to be a leader even without a formal position appeared first on Business.
