The Best Don’t Need to Manage
The Best Don’t Need to Manage
We all are continually seeking to be the best at leading, managing, owning, development, etc. Just note the huge sale of books such as Good to Great, Developing the Leader Within, The Leadership Challenge, Built to Last, and on and on and on. While these books very effectively point out examples to follow and practices to emulate, there is just nothing quite as powerful as experiencing greatness first hand. The case in point below demonstrates how ‘the best don’t manage’.
Over the years I have worked with hundreds of CEOs, Presidents, and owners some of whom were very effective and all genuinely and sincerely were trying their best. Once in a while you come across someone who possesses a personal belief about the goodness in people and has a personal style that allows their belief to permeate through all they do. As a result those around them accept challenges beyond their expected horizon and truly blossom into a heightened level of their own potential.
I have a client who fits this description.
I’d like to share with you some of the traits that allow this person to maximize the best in others by very subtly ‘managing’ not only their own behaviors but all the activities of their company. Seldom do they have to overtly ‘manage’ people or processes, they surround themselves with people who have potential and then allow that potential to grow. Here are some examples of what they do and how they do it. They realize
- The critical importance of hiring the right people – better to do without than hire the wrong person.
- That even it is difficult to do, sometimes you have to ‘de-hire’ a person who just doesn’t fit and never will.
- If an employee can’t be inspired, they made a mistake in hiring them and both the employee and the organization at-large will be better served the sooner this employee is gone.
- Employees really do know what they are doing, the key is to get out of their way and let them do it.
- Accountability and consequences (both positive and negative) must be used hand-in-hand for empowerment and human potential to grow.
- You must first trust before you get trust in return so they willingly give the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.
While this client spends a lot of time thinking about and subtly positioning his own behavior and that of others in order to get the results that are needed, he does very little overt ‘managing’ of people and processes because the employees have willingly stepped up to the challenge. His role is to set the direction, chart the course, keep the organization on task at a high level, ensure accountability is in place and provide liberal positive consequences for work well done. As a result he seldom has to step into the more typical ‘manager’ role that is so typically stereotyped. He spends a lot of time listening, asking questions, helping, thinking and smiling.
I recently facilitated a senior leadership team work session for this organization. And, while I didn’t actually keep track of the amount of time this person talked versus the air time of others in the session, I feel confident in saying he spoke less than 30% of the time. He set the tone, stated the objectives, asked questions, gave affirming answers and confirmed decisions others were making. This CEO is a delight to work with and I can only image how empowering, energizing, and engaging it is to work with him.