Category: musings on leadership development

In a practical follow up to Working From Second Chair, here are three simple questions to provide clear Guidance. You can use this tool with your boss or with those you supervise. I even made laminated cards to pass out.  When a new initiative comes up or you need to clarify an ongoing program or process, review the 3 simple questions.

1. WHY are we doing this?

This is the 50,000 foot view.

How does “this” tie into our overarching vision and values? This will determine if the initiative should even see the light of day.

2. WHAT is the 1 thing you would most like this to accomplish?

20,000 foot view.

This is where it gets tough because the leader must boil down the entire initiative to a singular purpose that is measurable. It requires the leader to prioritize between all the good things which might be accomplished and declare a bull’s-eye for the team to hit. This is the measure by which its success will be judged– did we accomplish X?

3. HOW are we accomplishing this one thing?

5 foot view.

If you are a leader of leaders –and not just a manger of doers–it is imperative you hand them some of the rope at this point.  Leaders must be empowered to decide their tactics that meet the answer provided to question #2 based upon their connection with their people.

If you provide them exact tactics, they are no longer leaders working under you but simply doers. If you completely provide every detail of the tactics to be used, good leaders will get frustrated because they are stifled from leading. If you release the tactics to your team with clear guidance on what you want them to accomplish, you can spend your energy on other 50,0000′ and 20,000′ feet ideas.

You are called to serve others with passion. This is true regardless of your job title. Many of us do this serving through a staff or cadre of volunteers whom we are charged with overseeing. Those people need you to be at your best as a leader to help lead them to their highest levels of effectiveness. Here is a challenge to give to your staff to COF.

CAPACITY- produce with excellence at a high rate.

1. Know your yearly goals, have them posted and make sure that is where most of your work is heading. I want to know your goals and how you are progressing towards them that week with specific actions.

2. Don’t get sucked into La-La Land. If you work on a computer, a funny youtube video is only one click away, and then another, and another.

3. Have accountability for your time. Know I will come check on you at times, asking what are you working on.  It keeps us all honest. However, if I have to babysit you, you won’t be here long. Also, we all do a time audit (free tool) at least three times per year.

OWN- your responsibilities handling them like would if your whole area were its own small business.

1. Be an initiator. If an webpage is out of date or we need to recruit new talent, don’t make me be the one coming and saying, “When are we getting the new content up? What is our recruitment strategy?” If you are stuck, come to me and say, “We have an web event ending, what is the most important next event?” or “Here is my recruitment strategy; does this work for you?”

2. Be an innovator. If you are over the web area, come to me saying, “Here are the newest trends; we want to attempt this?” Don’t get trapped in maintenance mode, it will kill us. If I am the one coming to you for innovations constantly, we are in trouble.

FINISH-make sure you are hitting deadlines and  have the right polish.

1. Hit deadlines. Never surprise me with a “woops.” If we are going to miss a deadline, I want to know why and by how much so I can  provide you ideas to get us there on time.

2. No sloppiness. Don’t make me ask, “Why was it okay with you that such a poor quality of product happened?” Spend the last 10% of energy to make sure it has the polish that it needs to communicate. We can always disagree over the concept of something initially. Once me make a decision to go in a direction, make sure we are clearing the bar before something gets sung, hung, displayed, or executed. It is usually a lack of effort or fatigue in final stages that makes the concept sloppy or well executed.

If people are missing the marks of COF-ing, you must ask them, “What is your passion?” If it is not in the area they are in, they need to move laterally or move on so someone else who COFs with passion can step into their role.

I have said 51% of any leaders job is raising up other leaders. How do we do that? Use the [decision space] concept.

When we have a potential leader we need to create a space for them in which they are completely authorized and resourced to make a decision. At first that space will be incredibly small, even an “either this or that” option. For example, I might need something designed by a rookie designer. I can tell the them, here is the template and you are free to change this color or that one picture. Here are the resources you have available. I then tell them, “Here is why we do it this way.” This last statement is vital because it gets them to start thinking with values and purposes of the organization, more on this to come.

The next time I give them a project their [ – decision space – ] should grow. They should be given slightly broader boundaries to make decisions of what to do, when to do it, and how to apply their given resources, with me providing coaching and continuing to give the “why” behind it all. And so on and so on.

Soon they will have grown into a [- – – – decision space – – – – -] where they are making major decisions on what to do, when to do it and how many resources to bear, as they now start raising up new leaders under them by providing these new leaders small [decision space] and multiplying the process. You will rarely have to bang your ahead against the wall on their decisions because they understand why you make the decisions you do and were grown in leadership. Though they might not approach a solution exactly like you would (which is actually healthy), the result will line up with the overall vision because they understand the WHY of it all. Soon you will have a team of solid leaders.

How can you give every person under your leadership a bit more [decision space] this week?

Most people don’t get to be the CEO or President, the head honcho or boss man.

Most of us find ourselves somewhere in the middle, executing and bringing creativity to our piece of THE vision.

This can be a tough place to lead from if you ever feel constrained or worse, you find yourself becoming a doing-pawn, merely carrying out the tactical orders of higher ups with no creative input.

How do you work with a strong key leader without frustrating him or her yet have a voice in the process? You don’t want to find yourself in the position of always being the “no-that-isn’t-a good-idea” guy but also don’t want to be a mere “yes-man” lest you lose your soul.

Here is an approach to consider.

When working with a leader, break down your leader’s thoughts (or orders) into three areas, concern, intent and tactics.

1. CONCERN

Often a leader will issue a tactical order without explaining the concern or intent behind it. In moment of crisis situations, these often need to executed immediately with no questions asked. But later, after the crisis passes, dialogue can be had as to why the leader issued the tactics they did. Most decisions are not in the moment crises and this conversation can happen along the way.

When you hear a tactic given, seek to understand the leader’s concern. Obviously, something is moving them to issue a tactical order. Are you not moving enough product, is attendance down, is something happening that is causing a drift from his or her vision? See if you can get the leader to clearly voice the fundamental concern.

2. INTENT

Second, move up one level from the tactical order and see if you can re-voice the leader’s intent back to them. “So I hear you telling us to do X tactic because you want to see Y result.” Sometimes you might be spot on. Other times the leader might add clarity by expanding your understanding for his wanting you to use a specific tactic. This will allow you to implement the tactic with a greater passion than merely carrying it out “because the boss said so.”

3. TACTICS

Another opportunity comes here. Often visionary leaders are great an intuitively having the right concern and intent but not necessarily applying the right tactic.

Understanding their concern and intent allows you to come to them and say, “Here is another option (tactic) to consider that might address your concern and intention in a more effective way.”

You’ll often find leaders who at first sound glued to a specific tactic are not as nearly glued to the tactic as they are to fixing the concern. When you identify with their concern and intent, they will be open to more effective tactics and not see  you as rebelling against authority. You are still a team player and on-board with the vision.  You are merely suggesting a different tactic to arrive at their desired outcome.

If these conversations are seasoned with grace and patience, I have seen remarkable openness by leaders to yield to more effective tactics different than they originally ordered because their concern and intent is being addressed.

Working with people at times will bring forth challenges. Tonight, was our men’s meeting week of my Team (small group). One of the guys told me something very wise that he uses in management. Usually when a people problem arises it can be broken down to one of two categories.

Training/Skill. Some problems are because people don’t have the skill set needed to execute whatever it is they are assigned to do. In that case you must ramp up training and communication to see if their skill set can be brought up to the quality level of the task required. Sometimes it can and sometimes it cannot.

Compliance. A much bigger issue. In this case the person possesses the necessary skill set, but the just won’t execute according to protocol and standards. Why? They might not see something as vital and important (communicating along proper channels, learning their stuff, hitting cues, etc.) and so they assume–the root of all conflict–that it won’t matter if they don’t execute it well (we call it a level 1 compliant problem). Another reason for a compliance problem is that the party doesn’t agree with the system, methods and standards, and they either don’t care or don’t know how to communicate it well, so they take it upon themselves to remedy the problem on their own accord (Level 2). The worst manifestation is a “cut your feet out from you” compliance problem where someone has a personal issue with you and your leadership and they attempt to intentionally sabotage leadership (Level 3).

“Pull the thistle.”  We have heard that phrase from our lead Pastor Bob Roberts 1,000 times at NorthWood.  He means, in his East Texas roots way, that if you don’t deal with an issue, gossip, behaviors or negative comments quickly and directly the “wound” will soon get infected, fester, and possibly even affect other areas of the body; but most of us dislike or even dread conflict and confrontation, so we let things go that shouldn’t be let go.  I am not advocating not offering grace, but making it clear that grace is being offered and that there is an issue at hand.  Here are some principles I have learned about dealing with conflict from watching Bob Roberts and listening to leadership guru Bobb Biehl:

1.    You can deal with something all out, and it will be messy, or you can not deal with it and have the person’s little messes fall on you for years. I learned that difficult conversations, though hard, are much better than the constant tension of denial over a long period of time.

2.  Only sadistic people like conflict, I prefer clarification. Bobb Biehl says that all conflict is based on a wrong set of assumptions by one party.  Examples: (A) “Oh I thought I could talk negatively about another worship team member on Thursday and still get to sing on Sunday.”  (B) Wow, you really care that I drank so much at a party that reports came back to you.  It wasn’t that much”    (C) “Yes, I told someone else that you had wronged me without coming to you first, but it was your fault.”  Or more subtly  (D) “Yes I haven’t sung the required amount of times on bridge team, but I helped out on extra on vocal teams last month.”  (E)” Yes I miss audio cues almost every other week, but I am trying my best.” One of the best ways to have a “clarification conversation” is to bring forth the concern and then ask the person to list their assumptions.  Then, you can list clearly the principles or values that counter those assumptions.  Hopefully you have espoused those to a degree in the past that it isn’t the first time they have heard them.

3. Since you will begin the conversation by asking them questions to gather their assumptions, it allows them to speak and be heard without feeling like they are being attacked. Stay calm and listen.  If they were wrong and are trying to dodge the issue, their answers will out them.  If you had misunderstood the situation, you’ll hear their answers and realize your assumptions about the situation was wrong.

4.  When you have the clarification conversation, do not let the conversation drift off topic and get to your solutions. Write down the things that need to be covered and the clear solutions or outcomes.  I remember having to deal with a band member who had gone to a topless bar.  I had the solutions written down so I wouldn’t get to the quick.  If he was repentant, I would ask him to tell his wife, apologize to his fellow bandmates, take a six month band hiatus and then we would talk about his returning to the band.  Tough, I know, but redemptive.  If he was not repentant, I was going to permanently dismiss him from the band.  I wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget or “go soft” even if he repented and say, “Its okay, just don’t do it again.”  He needed the grace and time to deal with the issues at hand.