It has been a couple weeks since I last visited this topical area. Today I wanted to go through a leadership failure of mine and hopefully provide some insight into ways you might avoid my mistakes. I talk way more than normal here about why. One might start to think I have the whys all figured out. I don't, not many people have the whys completely figured out. When you are in charge of people, it hurts to not have the whys figured out. There are a few causes to this particular failure, and some of them were not up to me. Where I certainly was deficient was in being an effective leader of the team I was charged with. Don't be that guy (me) in this case.
Understanding human motivation
Everyone gets up, puts on their shoes, and heads out the door for a reason. Root motivations are likely all very similar. The details, oh the details, those are the kicker. Some of the people with their shoes on in their commute are going to a place they hate. They are going to a manager who won't leave them alone. They are going to a place of trauma. They still go. Right next to someone who has the opposite experience in said place, for whatever reason. Both of these humans carry on despite the drastic departure of experience between them.
Where people perceive the need for them to persevere, they do so. Something inside of their mind has attached the importance of the output of their work, despite the suck, is critical enough for them to continue.
Leaders have to understand each individual enough to connect the work as firmly as possible to the driving component of the person. When we seek change in the organization, this connection will be a determining factor in success.
Note: I am not suggesting leaders find out ways to manipulate people into doing dangerous, unhealthy, or otherwise detrimental activities in the name of productivity. If you read that into this article, we likely have ethical disagreements. Leaders had better be finding all the suck they can at work a mitigating it wherever and however possible. Some jobs are hard and the suck is built in, don't be the guy who adds to it.
My failure to learn and leverage motivations
This post is supposed to be about me, so let's get into it. I was a leaders at a very small manufacturer for less than six months. Yep. 137 days to be precise. Shortest duration job I've had. The primary reason I failed as a leader here was building relationships with and understanding the motivations of the people who worked for me. As this was nearly five years ago now, you could say I've had some time to think it over. So, let me go over three elements of this failure.
- Assumptions
Immediately I noticed the long-term employees were very good at their work. Based on this I made assumptions about them. Now, we all do this a little and we should, you have to start somewhere with your perception of another human. Where I failed to be an effective leader comes after. I assumed, based on tenure and their clear interest in the organization, they would be as interested as I to push the envelope. To bring in some new ideas. Nothing drastic, I'm not always so perceptive, yet I knew big changes right away would be stupid. By making this assumption, I glossed over the need to learn from each of them what made them stay. What made them come in a do great work every day. In failing to find out, I had no real relationships with these people. I had zero leadership capital to use.
- Relationships
Without relationships, you aren't going anywhere. Leaders need to know their people to have any ability to stick up for them. To make systems better and remove the stupid. If you haven't made the right relationships, your efforts to find and remove the stupid are going nowhere. I've briefly mentioned some of my failures with initiatives before, this workplace was rife with them. If people cannot connect your idea to their motivations....forget it. The level of relationship building I was accomplishing here wasn't sufficient to allow me to be effective.
- Performance
Without good relationships I wasn't able to lead in ways the organization needed me to. The initiatives I started fell flat. I wasn't getting the engagement on any activity outside of the normal grind. My performance was not acceptable in the situation. The good relationships I dah in the organization were not in places where they were useful or impactful on the team I was responsible for.
So they graciously sent me on my way. Any other path would not have served the purpose of the organization properly. The boss's boss would have failed the company.
Post Mortem
I am in a better place with better understanding of myself and what it means to lead others. This failure, and others, have put me here. If you are in a similar situation I implore you to take some reflection time. Find out what you can do better. There is always something. Sometimes that something will save the day, and sometimes it won't. You still need to find out how to be better.
Best practices for this?
- Meditation -whatever this looks like for you
- Go outside -even in a hammock in the yard
- Read -real books, audio, kindle
- Exercise -walks, lift, hiking
- Talk about your failures -with kindness-
Ready to go with one of those? Good, not start somewhere!
