Leaders have 5 key roles to play in any business:
Building Bridges
Casting the vision
Humanizing the business
Directing the orchestra
Coaching the Team
Feedback for Base-Hits
Oftentimes, I see Managers hold back from praising a Team Member for only achieving a base-hit; only providing a level of praise when a homerun is actually made. This is a huge mistake! Feedback gives the Team a “real-time picture” of their performance. Team Members truly need to be recognized for their accomplishments, even if it were just a base-hit. Anyone in baseball understands that it’s the base-hits that give you homeruns. The entire Team watches how performance goes, and how the Leader responds when performance successes are achieved. When you encourage one…you are single-handedly encouraging them all to perform.
Encourage Learning through Mistakes
A “mistake” is only a problem if the individual who made the mistake didn’t learn from it. In fact, the majority of the best moments of learning occur when we make a mistake. I read about a fascinating Harvard study done years ago to explore the benefits of “encouraging learning from mistakes.”
They split a class of Harvard students into 2 groups (a control group and an experimental group). Both groups were instructed, as a Team, to work on a Team project and provide a final presentation to the class at the end of the semester. The control group was told to “do your very best” (which means it needed to be perfect in the eyes of A-type personalities). The experimental group, however, was instructed that in order to get an “A” on the project, they had to make mistakes along the way, and incorporate in their final presentation the learnings from the mistakes made on the project.
At the conclusion of the semester, both groups presented their project outcomes. The control group did an adequate job, but it was a bit lackluster. The experimental group, on the other hand, reported out their mistakes throughout the project, and shared how much fun they had working together and taking risks. Their objective WASN’T to make it perfect – but to make it inclusive, engaging and interesting. The result of the study suggests that when Teams are permitted (or encouraged) to make low-risk mistakes, they genuinely enjoy their work more, find more creative solutions, and work more interdependently than those Teams who weren’t encouraged to make mistakes.
As a bonus to this point, if, indeed, learning from the mistake had occurred, it means that your company or organization will hopefully not have to pay again for that mistake – provided that it’s encouraged as a, “shared learning opportunity.”
Lead People through Change as a Team
It’s a bit of a fallacy to suggest we “manage change” as Leaders. We don’t actually manage change – we manage people through change when it occurs. One of the best strategies to help coach people through change is encouraging them to share their ideas, concerns, and objections. Almost demanding opposing views, so that they get the chance to offer insights about how they honestly feel about the change.
When I want to rollout a new program or policy to my Team, I realize that in order to get buy-in about the change, I need to ask my Team to help me “poke holes” in the idea. Not to destroy it, but it bolster it; by asking them to help me answer, “How could this go wrong? What are the parts of this change that could create the greatest heartburn? What would be alternative ideas?”
If you don’t have a “critic” within your Team, you may have to arbitrarily hand-pick one. Assign someone who may ordinarily not be vocal about problems or concerns, to the role of being the Team’s “Devil’s Advocate” for this meeting. As such, they are not allowed to say anything positive or encouraging, but their job is to look for the weak spots, the warts and the flaws of the idea. A powerful thing occurs – we get very honest and critical feedback! Interestingly, when people are involved with the change discussion, and their ideas and input were considered, they offer faster buy-in to the change; even when their ideas were not incorporated. You genuinely honor a person’s intelligence and feelings when you consider their opinions.
In Conclusion
Leaders play five essential roles in business: Building Bridges, Casting the Vision, Humanizing the Business, Directing the Orchestra, and lastly, Coaching the Team. Leaders are individuals who make others better as a result of their presence, and ensure that the impact lasts in their absence. There is no greater legacy to leave than to leave others better because you were there helping them.
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