We are getting smarter about work and people and the intersection between them. More and more, working people are telling the truth about topics that they were afraid to talk about openly before. One of the stickiest topics is the quality of leadership found in large and small employers.
We are starting to tell the truth about the fact that most people in leadership positions are lacking in critical skills.
They don't know how to talk to their employees and they don't know how to listen. If they received any management training at all, they were probably trained to dole out work assignments and evaluate people. They don't know how to probe for understanding or how to create cohesion on a team.
In this new millennium, the old management tools like carrots and sticks -- rewards and punishments, that is -- are almost useless. People aren't motivated by carrots and sticks anymore. They want a piece of whatever win their department or their organization is shooting for.
That's only reasonable! People want to be included and respected at work, and who can blame them?
Here are seven leadership skills most managers lack. Can you begin a conversation in your workplace about these leadership topics today?
Perspective-Taking
A good manager can take another person's perspective, whether the other person is a customer, the manager's boss, or an employee on the manager's team. Strong managers can see the world through someone else's eyes. Unless managers talk through situations and gain perspective on them, they will not easily grow this skill on their own.
Allowing
The skill of allowing is the ability not to react in the moment when you hear bad or startling news, but to keep breathing and give the situation time to unfold. Too many new and even experienced managers freak out whenever they hear something they don't like. That is not a trait that strong leaders possess.
Real leaders allow people to be who they are, and they allow all the good things and bad things that happen in any workplace to happen because they know that they and their teammates can solve any problem if they keep their cool and resist the urge to place blame.
Intellectual Curiosity
Curiosity is one of the most important skills for a leader to cultivate. Curiosity requires us to ask questions. Instead of saying, "That's not the policy" or "I hate that idea" or "That's not your decision to make!" a strong leader will say, "Tell me more. I want to understand your thought process!"
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking means thinking beyond what we've been taught. It means looking at situations from all angles. We don't teach kids much about critical thinking in school -- we test them to see whether they've memorized a bunch of useless information that we've pumped into their heads instead. Critical thinking is important for everyone, and it's especially important for people who are put in charge of teams!
Connecting The Dots
Connecting the dots means working out problems in time and space. Chess players connect the dots better than most of us when they plan their possible moves three, four and five steps ahead. We all need to connect the dots at work, rather than seeing issues and problems as equations to solve. Here's an example.
Marcy is a Team Leader for the 11 people in the Customer Support Team at her company. One of her employees, Rachel, has a lot of trouble getting to work on time at 8:30 in the morning. Bruce, the HR Manager in Marcy and Rachel's company, tells Marcy, "You've got to get Rachel to come to work on time or write her up for her attendance problems."
Marcy says, "Honestly, Bruce, that is ridiculous. The world is not as black and white as you think. Rachel is an incredible employee. I know that her baby's day care center is in the opposite direction from the office, as you travel from Rachel's house.
"I know that Rachel can't drop her son at day care any earlier than 8 a.m. and it's very hard for Rachel to get here by 8:30. Let's sit down with Rachel and see what kind of solution we can devise."
Bruce and Marcy met with Rachel. They asked her, "Can you find another day care center that is closer to the office?"
"I suppose I could," said Rachel, "but I love the teachers at my son's day care center and as you know, infant day care is not easy to find. I would probably rather get another job than change day care centers."
Marcy said, "We don't want you to leave, Rachel. You are a great employee." Bruce suddenly saw what Marcy was up against. It isn't easy to find terrific employees. Bruce asked Rachel and Marcy, "What if we changed your working hours by half an hour? Could you start at 9 a.m. and leave at 5:30?"
Rachel said, "Yes! My day care center stays open until 7 p.m. I have lots more time to pick up my son on the trip home than I have time first thing in the morning, and the traffic will move more quickly at 5:30 than it does at 5 p.m. anyway."
Once Rachel's "attendance problem" was fixed, Marcy told Bruce, "Thanks for helping Rachel and I work things out."
Bruce said "Every time I get involved in one of these employee issues it reminds me that one-size-fits-all HR policies can hurt us as much as they help us. Thanks for helping me see that a simple schedule shift of half an hour is a much better solution for us than having to replace Rachel over an issue that is out of her control."
Humility
It is tempting as a manger to pick up the hammer and exert your authority whenever something goes wrong at work, or when you just want things to go your way. Strong managers resist the urge to use force and power to get things done. They are humble. They don't believe that they have all the answers or that they are smarter than the employees on their teams.
"If I were smarter than the employees who work with me," said Nicola, an Engineering Manager, "that wouldn't say much about my ability to hire talented people!" Nicola is right. Strong managers hire people who are smarter than they are. That's how companies develop not only bench strength but new ideas, too!
Coaching Skills
Coaching is not the same as supervision. Coaching doesn't involve telling employees what they need to start doing and stop doing. Coaching is all about listening and empathizing. Strong managers focus on the coaching side of their job more than the giving-orders part. Here are some of the coaching questions strong managers rely on:
• What do you need from me?
• How can I help you surmount that obstacle?
• What have you learned lately?
• What can I do to be a better manager for you?
• What parts of your job are most interesting for you?
• What do you think we should do about this issue?
• What are your goals in your job? What are your ideas for reaching those goals?
• What else do you want to talk about?
It's a new day, and the Human Workplace is already here. Old-fashioned command-and-control management is disappearing and giving way to new-millennium trust-based leadership. Is your organization keeping up with that trend? If not, these topics are great conversation-starters to being turning the tide!
