Effective Leading: Are you leading or dictating?
Leading a group of any size small or large is difficult. Each group having it’s own dynamic, each individual having their own reason for being a part of the group. To make it even more interesting, people will team up together with in the group whom they feel more comfortable with, sometimes making it harder for you to lead effectively. No matter how many times you have led said group before, different people add different flavors to the mix. As noted before, each person has their own agenda, a reason for being there. Even you the leader having your own agenda. Often we get mixed up in our own passions and our agenda becomes more important then those obtained by the group. By group it could be your marketing team, management team, leadership team or any other group/team for that matter. Depending upon the genre or our leadership sometimes our passion can over power our ability to decipher wether we are leading or dictating.
A dictator, sounding worse then it really is, often has passionate ideas that are good ideas. In most situations the idea will work and sounds great to those outside the group or team. The dictator consumes him or herself in the idea planning it from beginning to end, having the entire process ready to execute at the moment everybody is on his side. The difficult part lies in winning the group/team over to the leader’s side. The leader loses much sleep over this. The dictator worries that the team will not like the idea and will revolt against it. Never the less a dictator knows that the ultimate power lies with in his power, the team is marly a formality. A good dictator will not pull rank. He will continue to work on the group to win them over to his side, a complete power trip would send his team running. The dictator needs his team because the simple fact of having the team allows him to justify his decisions. With out a team there is nothing to hide behind. If there are people above him then he will use them as leverage to his way of thinking rendering the groups perspective helpless. Even if there is resistance to the idea he will continue to work toward total acceptance of his idea, even if there is a better idea in the group.
An effective leader engages his ideas with the group, using the group to build on his idea. If the idea needs pruning or someone has an idea to make it more effective the effective leader can step back, visualize the suggestion and effectively decide wether to implement the addition or to move past it all the while keeping his group engaged in the process. The effective leader pays close attention to what each person has invested into the idea or project and makes sure to respect each individuals effort. Knowing that some in the group produce more effort then others (80/20) he is still able to engage each person on their own level and make use of their efforts regardless of how little. When you are effectively leading you catch up with your team before you “get down to business.” An effective leader wants to know his team personally and does.
One of the best ways to show someone you care about them is to build them up. Saying nice things about a person builds their self esteem. We all know that when our self esteem is up we produce best. As an effective leader you will want to look at your team with only the best light shining on them. Expect high and watch them deliver. When you have nice things to say about your team they will respect you as their leader. Say nice things about your team members in front of other people, but make sure that whatever you complement them on you have said to them in private. You do not want to come across as manipulative.
Another way to effectively lead is to give the floor to the holder of a good idea. Let your team member with the break through idea explain it to the rest of the team. Do not put yourself in any place where it may seem that you are the originator of one of your teams ideas. If you report to someone higher, make sure you report the findings to your superior, a good leader will not fear that his job is in danger over sharing the idea of someone under him. Good upper management will recognize that good ideas must be coming at the hands of a good leader they have put in charge of the group.
Reward your team. The simplest of this has been seen in casual Fridays or company picnics. I think you can do better. If you have a team at work that is making you look good then they deserve some appreciation. Wether your team is 1 or 100 you need to figure out how to do it.
I think by now you get the idea. Appreciation goes far beyond words. If you need additional help or motivation there are hundreds of books out there, may of which I could recommend.
In conclusion, where ever you find yourself in the leadership spectrum I suggest that you step it up and show your team that you are on their side. If you really want to get a good idea of what your team thinks of your leadership have an someone outside of your team ask what the team thinks about you on a one to one basis. One of the things I do before I decide to join a team is to find out what the others think of the person heading up the group. Knowing is half the battle, the rest is simply appreciation.
