What is one of the most common workplace complaints? According to a LinkedIn survey, 79% of employees say they had a micromanaging boss at some point in their career. These are bosses who want to control their work environment down to the minutest detail. I certainly understand the urge. Who wouldn’t want everything done exactly to their own preference?
But being a good leader is not about controlling minutiae. It’s about providing your team with an objective and giving them the freedom to find a way to meet it. It means telling someone what needs to be done but not necessarily how to do it, trusting others to get it done. To lead in this manner requires one to be vulnerable and willing to step out of his or her comfort zone.
This is not to suggest that good leaders are hands off, not involved in their organization’s operations, and don’t establish necessary left and right limits based on policy or precedence. Most important, they are not off the hook to provide effective guidance to go along with directing what needs to be done. Far from it. Guidance is a critical piece of the equation, and an effective leader tailors it to the situation—the timeframe in which the task must be completed; the experience level of the recipient of the task; the criticality of the task to an overarching organizational outcome; the complexity of the task; the involvement of other parties, and so forth. Guidance should paint a picture of what success will look like, resources available, when check-ins will occur, and, importantly, why the task is being assigned, and its relationship to other parallel or sequential efforts, as appropriate. All these parameters constitute good guidance.
Before I took command of a brigade combat team in the Army in 2000, as a newly minted Colonel, I was fortunate to receive some priceless mentoring from a senior officer in my command. One of the assistant division commanders of the division I was assigned to, a brigadier general, took it upon himself to conduct a few mentoring sessions with me, and one in particular stands out, to this day. It was all about the importance of leading through others, elevating my leadership, and getting comfortable with that.
Brigades in the Army are commanded by colonels, and within their organizations there are a number of battalions, commanded by lieutenant colonels. Brigades vary in size, typically from 3,000-5,000 soldiers depending on the type; battalions roughly 400-600. Battalions are the first level of command in which the commander has a dedicated staff; brigades have staffs as well, larger and more experienced. The years-of-service difference between the two commanding officers is usually about 3-5 years. But it’s the level of leadership and how one leads at the higher—brigade—level that’s important to get right.
My mentor made it a point to ensure I understood that leading through my subordinate battalion commanders was vital to my success, and to not lead my brigade as a big battalion commander. In other words, give them good guidance, focus on the task and purpose of what it was they were being assigned to do, and generally describe to them many of the aspects of the mission I mentioned above. And then let them figure it out. He reminded me that my subordinate commanders all were centrally selected by the Army for command, as of course was I, and that they had staffs of their own to analyze missions and develop plans to execute. Elevating my leadership and reminding myself repeatedly of the need to do so if I wanted a healthy command climate, helped me ensure I was leading in the right way. And it helped in my subordinates’ professional development and in terms of legacy, I was helping them acquire the skills to one day do my job.
Not all leaders, military, civilian sector, law enforcement—name the enterprise—get this right. They suffocate subordinates in how they lead, dig into details way below their level, micromanage because they can, and with the aid of technology, dive into the deepest bowels of their organization. They default to their comfort zone, having in many cases done their subordinates’ jobs before.
The Army has a saying about moving up the chain of command. “The higher up the flagpole you ascend, the more your ass shows”—the more exposed you are, the more vulnerable. There you are with it all hanging out. But that is the nature of leadership. When you assume a leadership position, you agree to take responsibility for all that happens on your watch. Whether you like it or not you have put yourself in a vulnerable position.
Once you’ve said “Yes” to that responsibility, though, you have two choices. Either you can try to control everything that happens, or you can enlist others to help you meet your goals by leading through them. The two options will not produce the same results. The first option will always be limited because you have a finite amount of time and attention. There’s no way around it. However, if you choose the second option and devote your finite time and attention to working through others to help achieve your goals, it takes the question of limits off the table. Your chances of success soar, and you have the added bonus of leaving a legacy through the people you’ve developed to take your place.
All it takes to choose option two is understanding the inherent vulnerability of being a leader, embracing it, and making it your partner.
Excellent advice for business owners as well.