Moving towards empowerment

Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It's about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter. It is about laying the groundwork for others' success, and then standing back and letting them shine.

- Chris Hadfield -

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I've spent much of my working life leading other people and have learned many lessons along the way; failure is a great teacher and I've failed at leadership, learned from it and redeployed in more productive ways. Conversely, I've had great success with some very efficient and productive teams operating under my leadership. One can't occur without the other.

I don't believe a person is born a leader as is often said; sure, a person can have innate leadership qualities however the skills a good leader requires can be acquired though research and study, instruction, example, experience, failure and success.

I've always been somewhat of a leader, even as a child, and feel I've added to skills I've had from my youth to develop a leadership style that has brought efficient and productive outcomes and empowered people to seek continual improvement in themselves and the team. I believe that aspect, the ability to empower others, provide support without removing their responsibility and standing back to allow them the accolades they are due for the work they did, has been one of the greatest revelations I've discovered along the way. Ordering people to act works in certain scenarios but empowering them to act brings a better outcome; or so I have found at least.

Leaders have to lead though, that's the nature of the job and teams, units, work-cells, groups and individuals need leadership of some sort to operate most effectively. [Even if this leadership is an individual leading themselves to success through the right thoughts, attitudes, actions and effort - self-leadership.]

It's been almost six months since I began a new role in a company operating in the transportation industry - the company doesn't do the transportation but supports the logistics companies that do.

I work in a management role within the office but spend a fair amount of time liaising with the factory manager and the heads of the various teams in the factory as well as the fellows who get their hands dirty. I've worked hard to build solid relationships which began with a walk around every morning to say hello to each person, have a little chat and engage briefly. It was strange for them at first, or so they tell me, but within a week or so it became the norm and on those rare days I'm late out into the factory because I'm busy they tender all sorts of friendly taunts about my reasons for being tardy. In short, they have come to accept what I do as part of their day and miss it when it doesn't happen like clockwork. That's a good thing.

I do many other things to build culture within the company of course - a condition that makes the workplace better for all concerned - and those things all aim at achieving better productivity, greater attention to detail and care-factor, a greater chance that the staff will dig deeper when we need them to and to generally help them feel happier when at work. I'm not going to go into them all however wanted to share one small thing I began to do at the beginning of my second week - I waited until I had settled in, and people knew me a little first, hence the week-delay.

It's a simple thing that takes moments but one that has, like my morning chats, become normal operation...and woe to me if I forget; the lads let me know quick smart. That's a good thing too as it means they value the small gesture, that it means something to them.

Each Monday I pin a quote next to their time-clock where they punch in and out morning and night. That's it. It's so simple and yet has become such an important part of the week for most of the team. The quote at the top of this post is the one I pinned yesterday.

At first, I got some weird looks from the team and some ignored the quote. I persisted. A few weeks later I overheard a couple of lads talking about that week's quote. Several days later I was asked about it by another chap and we discussed its meaning. A month later I was out working with clients and wasn't able to pin the quote first thing in the morning...I got text messages asking where the quote was; slowly the small repetitive act worked its way into their Monday and the week following and began to seep in - it became a positive part of their working week.

The quotes I choose don't always relate to work scenarios but life, the individual, positivity in general and most things in between.

It gives them something to think about, a focus each Monday and something to contemplate as they roll their day out. They don't wander about thinking about the quote all day though and sometimes it's more relevant to some over others, but the response, after it permeated a little, has been very positive and I've been told by more than a few that they appreciate having me around. They come to me with concerns, problems and ideas freely and open up to me in ways I believe they haven't been able to previously. That means problems are more likely to become opportunities through discussion, contemplation, planning and action and that's only ever going to be more advantageous for the company. It also means they are involved in that process and that's called empowerment.

I chose the quote above as a message for a couple of individuals who needed a gentle attitude adjustment in my opinion and rather than formalise it I decided on a more subtle path. One of these fellows approached me later in the day and explained a few scenarios and we discussed a way forward which I thought was really cool; the chap had seen the quote, realised what he was doing [or not doing] and adjusted himself voluntarily. He came to tell me, thank me and confirm that he'll do it better from that point on. Problem solved, for him at least. The other...well, we'll see how that goes.

There are so many elements that need to come together for a person to call themselves a good [effective] leader and humility is one of them. Allowing the team to excel, and receive the accolades and reward for it, is critical. A bad leader will take it for himself or herself and it may even work once or twice. A good leader understands the importance of empowerment and that the greatest asset he or she has is the team itself.

Have you had any experiences as a leader or under a leader that have allowed yourself or the team to excel or have you had experiences in which the team suffered due to an inept leader? Feel free to tell me about it in the comments below.