Rachel was a new employee at a retail outlet. She was given the requisite week in the training room and then sent out to the sales floor. Part of her job was to restock merchandise that had been returned. She had been on the job but a few days when an item was returned in a damaged box. She checked inside and saw that the manual was also missing.
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As she pondered what she should do, the department manager stopped by to see how she was doing. She showed him the item and asked him what to do with it.
He did not tell her. Instead, he asked, “What would you do with it?”
She thought for a bit, remembering the store’s policy on returns and a bin she had seen at the end of an aisle. “I would tape up the box, put a clearance tag on it marking that it is missing the manual, mark down the price, and put it in that clearance bin.”
The department manager smiled. That was precisely the correct answer.
All leaders are, by nature, problem solvers. They look at life as a series of obstacles to overcome, issues to resolve, and problems to fix. Many relish being the go-to guy, the person with all the answers. But that attitude will eventually come back to bite you. It reveals two things about you and your leadership style.
First, it shows that you don’t understand the primary role and objective of a leader. You aren’t there to do everything; you are there to be sure that everything gets done. You can’t possibly do everything that has to be done to get everything done. It is neither possible nor necessary.
Second, it shows a lack of ability or willingness to develop others. Withholding information that will empower others often signals a need to control. No control freak can ever become a superlative leader. Effective leaders are always giving away information and skills. They intend to equip others to do their jobs, extend their reach, multiply their effectiveness, and divide their work, and they do this at every opportunity.
In a recent Tweet, I wrote, “Spend more time working ON your business and less time working IN your business. Delegation benefits everyone.”
Superlative leaders aren’t necessarily focused on problems and solutions. They are, frankly, often a little bit lazy. Superlative leaders are competent problem solvers, and they give others the ability and authority to solve problems as well.
How does this work in the real world? Here are seven items to consider:
1. Classroom training is just one half of the training process. The other half is real-life, on-the-job experience if it is accompanied by a sharp, confident, and competent onsite mentor. I’m not advocating a “throw them in the deep end and hope they can swim” approach to development. I’m suggesting a deliberate effort to sharpen the skills of trusted associates and employees.
2. Giving others the ability and authority to solve problems demonstrates that you can delegate and that you trust them to do the right thing. The converse is also true. Refusing to do so demonstrates a lack of trust and an unwillingness to train. This guarantees that you will limit your reach and inhibit your effectiveness.
3. Measure every problem brought to you and every problem you encounter. Who can you train, who can you educate, and who can you empower to solve the problem? Someone, somewhere in the organization should fit one of these three parameters.
4. Knives get sharper when they are sharpened. People get better at what they practice. Training-room training is one thing; real life is another. Show your employees how to do something and then let them do it. If they make the wrong decision, do not scold or condemn them. Train and explain instead.
5. Never forget your two-sided objective: First, solve the problem and second, develop effective leadership around you. Reserve your problem solving to only those items that absolutely no one else can attend to, that absolutely no one else can handle. Give everything else away.
6. Ineffective leaders neglect their responsibility to equip others. Thus, they limit their ultimate growth as leaders and their effect on the company or organization.
7. Finally, superlative leaders may not be very good at leading followers, but they are fantastic at leading leaders. And that is precisely how they become superlative, effective, and legendary.
Comments
A suggestion
I would suggest that a leader's two-sided objective is to FIRST develop effective leadership around you, SECOND, watch the problems get solved.
So true
Superlative Leaders
I have always thought that "Superlative Leaders" lead by their own example. Thus, a person who constantly delegates every possible action items to others will not be a superlative leader, in my opinion. Developing colleagues and team members to have their own ability to solve problems, as stated in Mr. Dunigan's article, is a great attribute of superlative leaders, but there is a fine line if crossed,makes a "superlative" leader" just a "superlative delegator".
When there is a specially difficult task, the superlative leaders take charge, and show by their own example, how intelligent analysis, hard work, and humility (in taking and implementing others' inputs), can help solve the so called "Difficult" problems.
leading isn't delegating...
By putting the development of leaders first was to clarify a priority. As business issues arise and the heat of the moment is upon us, we have a decision to make. The decision is to do and put development to the side or to mentor/coach/develop to the solution.
My assertion is that superlative leaders will "develop to the solution" as the first priority as opposed to "solve then develop". This does imply that a solution might be a littler longer to implementation.
I suggest that this should be viewed as an investment to the business. The investment give a two-fold benefit: 1) be a hedge against the urge to solve "just this once" and result in limited time to actually develop the team 2) create the foundation to grow the business as issues are solved.
a leader's primary purpose
leading by example
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