Drawing from her favorite behavior-changers, Kirstin Lynde shares three factors that can help evolve a top-down leadership style to leading a collaborative and productive team.
Still new to the art of deciding when to do what others ask, children endearingly learn their usual way: they play games.
“Simon says touch your toes. Simon says do a jumping jack. Look at the sky. [Laughter erupts as the pig-tailed girl eagerly looks up, then dissolves in giggles, realizing she goofed.]
For many of us, it was a rude awakening to become the boss. And we were not giggling. We had imagined our new title would make us a grown-up version of Simon. So we started issuing requests. And learned fast that true “power” – the ability to get things done through others — doesn’t come on a silver platter along with the new business cards and office name plate.
The Leader as Hostage
As Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill puts it in her wonderful article, Becoming the Boss,
New managers soon learn…that when direct reports are told to do something, they don’t necessarily respond. In fact, the more talented the subordinate, the less likely she is to simply follow orders. (Some new managers, when pressed, admit that they didn’t always listen to their bosses either.) After a few painful experiences, new managers come to the unsettling realization that the source of their power is, according to one, “everything but” formal authority.
Or as one disillusioned manager put it in Hill’s article: “Becoming a manager is not about becoming a boss. It’s about becoming a hostage.”
Today’s need for complex corporate collaboration is rough on those comfortable with old-style command-and-control leadership. Colleagues juggle requests not just from their boss, but from other departments, leaders, suppliers, prospects, and clients. And they frequently have great discretion in how they handle those requests. They can tackle a task today — or next Tuesday. They can dive into an assignment with great creative gusto, or just cross the “t’s” and dot the “i’s” in a perfunctory way.
Key points include:
- The power of simplicity in communication
- Direct engagement
- Humility and learning
Read the full article, At the Intersection of Food, Influence, and Leadership, on CatalyzeAssociates.com.