The Trusted Leader by Robert Galford

Author:Robert Galford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books

Some General“Do’s”

Beyond our specific advice for Bryant’s triage efforts, we also have some general “do’s” to offer (which he’d do well to take note of). To wit:

Allow, where possible, inclusion in visioning and goal-setting. Jon Skinner, a former boss of Annie’s, was great at this. As he told her once, the first step is building a team whose input you really want (we hope you have that luxury). The next step is facilitating the process. Annie recalls that Jon was thoughtful about gathering input from members of his team, and bringing the team to a solution that they all bought into. “We always felt incredibly valued during the process, even when the outcome wasn’t exactly what we had suggested.”

The trick, according to Jon, is knowing how to balance the need to be inclusive with the need for quick decision-making. As Jon told Annie, it was important for him, always, to have at least a loose idea of where he wanted to go, knowing at the same time that he shouldn’t gather feedback if he didn’t have the ability to be open-minded about whatever he received.

We’ve seen managers become paralyzed by their consensus-driven styles. We’ve seen the marketplace pass them by as a result. We’re not advocating across-the-board inclusive decision-making. There are times when you need to make a firm autonomous decision, and when those times arise, that’s what you have to do. Make the decision, in those cases, but also take the time afterward to explain why you needed to go it alone (speed concerns, confidentiality, etc.) Remember, you are the leader; it’s not like this would be unusual or unexpected in many management circumstances.

Be consistent about public recognition. We’ve known a lot of managers who tend to recognize people—and team effort—publicly only in times of organizational stress. Public recognition shouldn’t be situational. It shouldn’t only happen when you think it would be “good for the company” to get a pep talk. If you treat it in that way, you’ll look defensive and you’ll make the company look defensive.

Instead, recognition for good work should be a regular (but not necessarily regularly scheduled) event. It should be consistent with your organization’s aspirations. And it should reflect a consistently high standard. (In other words, there’s a flip side; don’t begin to recognize everyone, all the time. You’ll dilute the effect.)

Many hotels and supermarkets have “employees of the month.” It’s a big deal—and, if the organization does it right, it truly underscores the company’s criteria for success. (Too often, we’ve seen recognition programs like these dissolve into situations in which “everyone gets a turn, so what’s the point in trying.”)

We’ve also seen recognition programs turn into love-fests for a few stellar performers. What if you have one star, or a small number of stars, and you’re at risk of recognizing the same people over and over again? We’ll talk about that risk later on in this chapter, but here, suffice it to say that one way to get around it is to vary the quality or skill that you’re recognizing.

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