Leaders Need to Stop Lecturing and Start Teaching
It doesn’t matter what organization we work in, it is inevitable that there will be times of struggle. Periods when things don’t go to plan, that every pre-worked out contingency seems to end in failure, and not one of our goals comes to fruition. What do we do then?
I’ve talked about this with many groups of people, and the overwhelming answer seems to be “drop the hammer”. Team’s failing? Somebody needs to get fired. It’ll light a fire under everybody, and we can grind our way to the finish line. This is the common approach that commonly fails. The usual results are low morale, high turnover, even less productivity, and the only one who gets the hammer dropped on them is usually the leader of the group. A manager that needs to face the music when things go too far off the rails.
Yes, there needs to be accountability. It’s the nature of leadership. If you want to sit on the hot seat, there are times when the seat is going to be hotter than others. You do have to take responsibility for failing to meet objectives. That said, hard times ARE inevitable, and if the task was easy, there would be a line up of people looking for the responsibility to get it done and take the credit. Hard tasks have short lines.
Poor leaders commonly resort to cracking the whip in the face of struggle. Daily lectures on the consequences of failing to meet objectives become the norm. The squeeze gets harder. How much blood can we get from a stone? Poor leaders stop looking at what is causing the problem, and what lessons need to be learned and instead focus on perceived weaknesses of the group.
Good leaders do something else. They go looking for causes of dysfunction, glean lessons learned, and stop lecturing. They share what they’ve learned, and teach their team needed lessons that will overcome the struggles, and get the wheels of progress moving again. A friend of mine who owns a restaurant in Dubuque, Iowa was telling me about the struggles his staff was having with new kitchen procedures. The initial assumption was the staff was being lazy, and just wanted to keep doing things the old way, even though it was thought that the old way was too slow and costly.
It took the laying of several suspensions on staff for a young cook to invite my friend to participate in a dinner service under the new rules. Even though my friend has been in the restaurant business for 25 years, he found it extremely difficult to follow new protocol – it was simply too complex to be learned quickly and implemented easily. This led to a staff meeting where grievances were allowed to be aired, my friend apologized for the lack of clarity, and discussions were held between owners and staff on how to best achieve the results that the new procedures were supposed to address.
This approach takes humility, and an understanding that as leaders we don’t always have all the answers, even if others look for us to. Teaching our teams is about two-way communication. While you can try to simply impose the right answers, it never guarantees that the correct lesson is being learned. When we collaborate and solve problems as a team, and learn from the mistakes, we wind up much further ahead. Remember to talk less and listen more. The more we delegate responsibility as leaders, the more we allow frontline team members to become subject matter experts. Let them be the experts and teach us the best way of accomplishing the required objectives.
One of the side benefits of a teaching centred leadership approach is that it gives greater opportunity to observe the mentoring skills of others on our teams, and identify future leadership talent. Nurturing the succession of our teams is often a prerequisite of our own advancement. You simply won’t be promoted in your own career if there is nobody to replace you. Make yourself replaceable – even if it feels uncomfortable. Remember, leaders thrive on discomfort! Teach the future teachers how to mentor. It creates a more holistic approach to problem solving, and creates a far more nurturing work environment.
Good leaders are inspirational people. People are inspired when they are given the opportunity to do new things. So stop lecturing, stop squeezing, and start teaching and mentoring. You’ll find stuck wheels start moving much quicker.
