Did you ever just have to get it off your chest?
Recently I was having a detailed, rational, intelligent conversation with a colleague about leadership. Okay, to be honest, it was really more of a bitch session about their boss. But isn’t that the way that leadership is really evaluated in the proverbial trenches? People will talk about their leaders with friends, co-workers, family, pretty much anyone who will listen. It’s one thing to be talked about. There is nothing you can do about it; it’s inevitable. It’s another thing entirely to be bitched about. I believe that leaders can control whether or not their people take complaints to this level.
Believe me, this was a true bitch session.
In this conversation, the main complaint was that the people who worked for the leader in question were constantly caught off guard. They didn’t know from one day to the next or one situation to the next exactly how the boss was going to react. It created an environment of unpredictability. This unpredictability led to unproductive behaviors, like always having to “CYA” (cover your actions).
Why is it that some leaders, whether consciously or inadvertently, foster an environment where your people really don’t know what to expect from you?
I was able to share with my colleague a lesson I learned as a young U.S. Army officer.
The commanding general of one of the posts where I was stationed in the early 1990s was Major General Thomas A. Schwartz. (He subsequently went from wearing those two stars to four stars.) Shortly after taking command of the division he shared a leadership technique with all of the officers on the post that I have taken with me and still use to this day.
Just remember the acronym T.I.P.S. I will paraphrase here and embellish the key points.
T.I.P.S.
Talk to your people
Be Predictable
Be Sensitive to their individual needs
Talk to your people. Find out what is really happening. You can’t learn much of anything if you aren’t talking to the people you are trying to lead. More important than just talking is listening to what they are saying. That is why God gave you two ears and one mouth. You are supposed to listen twice as much as you speak.
Keep them Informed. Let your people know what is happening. Let them know what you think. Admit to them the things that you don’t know. You may be surprised how much mileage this will get you with your people.
Be Predictable. Don’t make them guess. If they don’t know what to expect from you, they won’t trust you. If they won’t trust you, they won’t follow you. And, if they won’t follow you, then you can’t lead them. If that happens, you are no longer a leader but, rather, a box on the org chart.
Be Sensitive to their individual needs. Contrary to what some people may think, leadership is not a “one size fits all” model. The leader who interacts with everyone exactly the same is guaranteed to mis-communicate with 75% of their people. Take a minute to understand what drives your people, what they respond to, and how best to utilize their talents and abilities.
Thanks to General Schwartz for sharing this leadership model. I hope you can use this model to improve your own leadership style.
What are you doing to make sure that you are communicating effectively with ALL of your followers? Are you using these same techniques with your boss(es) and peers? What sort of feedback mechanism do you have in place to insure that you are hitting the mark as an effective communicator? Let me know how it works for you. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
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This post, as well as others from Dave, can also be found at http://linked2leadership.com/author/dhasenbalg/
Dave Hasenbalg is Chief Operating Officer of Customized Solutions, LLC and does coaching and public speaking on Leadership and Operational Excellence.
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