Creating the next generation of leaders is no laughing matter. It takes deliberate effort, and if done right, it makes your job as a leader a whole easier in the long-run. You become a talent magnet and cultivate leaders of high character to lead your organization into the future.
Putting properly trained front-line personnel in positions that enable them to make decisions that stick enables you to gain their trust, emotional attachment and build their enthusiasm for the job. In turn, that trust will spread within the organization and lead to the delivery of outstanding performance, by eliminating the bureaucracy that often stifles the progress of your team.
Of course, you need to be mindful of preparing them for their role and getting them to share the same goals as you and the rest of the team. When they are ready, you can have confidence in letting your best and brightest do their thing.
Here are six tips that you can use to enable your team to make decisions that stick:
- Spot and grow talent across the organization.
A great leader knows talent. Be a talent-hound and work to identify those that can be both a great complement to your team and become a leader worth developing.
If you see a person who does not shy away from taking on new responsibilities, they are a keeper. If you see a person who demands the spotlight at every turn, they may not be one to invest in. Nonetheless, a great team provides the fodder that you need to build leaders in your organization.
- Prepare them to make the call.
Training is an important element on staff preparedness. Be sure to properly train your team before putting them in charge of making the call.
When empowering your team to take on more responsibility, emphasize the importance of considering alternatives, evaluating the risks, and thinking through the implications of decisions before making final calls. Reinforcing this kind of thinking will contribute to them making better decisions.
When mentoring always ask them to walk through their rationale for how they made a recent key decision. Whether the decision was good or bad, looking to see whether they considered alternatives and risks beforehand — emphasizing the importance of the practice until it becomes second nature.
- Resist the urge to prescribe how the work is done.
Once a team is properly prepared, there’s no need to micro-manage. Instead, let the leaders that you are developing decide how best to proceed. Of course, you will want to keep an open door policy and invite them to reach-out whenever they need advice or want a sounding board. You get the best of both worlds when you operate in this fashion — a team that respects you and an empowered team of leaders.
- Design the decision rights.
Everyone needs to know what decisions they can make on a day-by-day basis and when additional oversight is needed. Be sure to outline those “decision rights” as you empower your team members.
It’s a great idea to involve your people in setting their “decision rights.” Mutually agreeing to the conditions in which a leader can act independently — and which situations require the involvement of you or others to assist in direction-setting — makes those decision rights easier to understand and institute.
- Use the veto sparingly.
When you have authorized a team member to make a decision, it’s important not to change or veto it. Instead, when results are disappointing due to a sub-par call, use it as a teaching moment and discuss with them how to make a better decision next time. They will improve their skills and you will build a stronger team as a result.
- Hold your people accountable to get things done.
Accountability comes with leadership. Just because you are developing people does not mean that you don not hold them accountable for delivering results. Be sure to make expectations clear and hold your people to meeting them. It’s really that simple: Set clear expectations and manage your team to them. After all, any experienced leader understands that deadlines are deadlines, budgets are budgets, and goals are goals. Insist that your team of leaders live within those boundaries and you will create the next generation of leaders that you can count on.
Most people are familiar with the idea of self-affirmations and the power of positive thinking. “If you think you can do it, you can” is a notion that crops up often in self-help books and videos. Though that approach may be helpful in some circumstances, science is showing that being curious can be a more powerful motivator, and it can fuel the innovation-focused and big-picture thinking that is common among great leaders.
More specifically, it turns out that asking questions of yourself, rather than psyching yourself up with “I will” statements, results in people persisting longer at challenging tasks. The researchers who first introduced this idea tasked their study’s participants with solving challenging word scramble puzzles but there was a twist. One group was asked to think about the fact that they would soon be working on these puzzles. The other group was asked to wonder about whether they would soon be working on them.
The researchers found that participants who wondered what would happen solved many more anagrams than participants who focused on what they were told would happen. Similarly, when groups were instructed to think to themselves “I will,” they fared worse than groups that were told to ask themselves questions starting with, “Will I?” This was true not only with word puzzles, but also with exercise.
How to Question Yourself to Success
The lesson here? Instead of willing yourself to achieve, question yourself to success, and you will soon be thinking like a leader. There are actually several key ways to do just that. Let us take a look at some of the most important types of questions you can ask if you want to think like a leader.
- Look inward first.
Change comes from within, so you should start by questioning yourself. These questions should probe your character, values, abilities, goals, and direction.
For example, you can ask yourself, “What are my values?” That’s a good foundation for all other questions. You can then wonder about whether your goals and the direction to those goals are aligned with your values. Then, you can ponder whether your abilities are sufficient to advance those goals. Finally, be sure to look within yourself and consider whether your character matches with everything else.
- Use questions to connect with your team.
Too often, leaders fail to understand the concerns and thinking of those they work with. Asking questions is one of the easiest ways to know the thoughts and needs of your colleagues. So, talk to your team members. Ask them questions that get at the fundamental issues of their role in your workplace and glean any insights on possible opportunities for your team to succeed.
These should be questions about what’s important to the members of your team, what they are excited about, and in what direction they would love to see their work headed. But they should also probe problems they are having and what is holding them back from overcoming those challenges. By having a frank and open discussion about their role, you can not only discover issues that need to be addressed, but also create a greater sense of connection between you.
- Keep questioning what’s possible.
In business, as in life, tired assumptions are the enemy. In order to stay vital, you need to keep questioning the fundamentals of what you and those around you are doing. For your business, it’s key to question the entire marketplace you are working in. That includes business realities like shareholder value, technology (and its supposed limits), public sentiment, and what might be possible in the future.
Do not be afraid to make your questions childlike. That kind of open-mindedness is a great asset for asking the kinds of questions that can revolutionize an industry. Starting questions with “What if …” is a good way to put yourself in that frame of mind.
Almost all human progress starts with questioning. From science to politics to business, asking questions about why and how and for what purpose very often reveals an overlooked aspect of the current situation and an opportunity for growth and improvement.
Do not get complacent — keep questioning, and encourage your team to do the same. Companies that keep a spirit of wonder and searching will be the best prepared to take on the big challenges of this century.
When you ask a young star to step up and make the transition to a leadership role—at any level—you owe it to that new leader and her team to make sure that she is fully prepared to take on additional responsibilities and authority. Teach new leaders how to do the people work, and then support and guide them in this new role every step of the way: explain that this new role carries with it real authority, that it does not award her license, of course, to act like a jerk.
Spell out for the new leader exactly what her new leadership responsibilities look like. Explain that management entails more than completing some extra paperwork. You have to explain the “people work” in detail. Create standard operating procedures for managing, and teach them to all new leaders. Focus on the basics, like spelling out expectations for every employee who works for them, following up regularly, tracking performance closely.
Make sure you formally deputize any new leader, no matter how small the project or how short the duration of the leadership role. Do not just whisper it in the new leader’s ear: “I want you to take charge of this project and make sure everyone on the team pulls his weight.” You need to announce the new leadership to the whole team, articulate the nature of this person’s new authority, and explain the standard operating procedures for management that you have asked the new leader to follow.
Check in daily (or every other day) with this new leader. Regularly walk through the standard operating procedures for managing people. Ask about the management challenges he/she is probably facing. At first, you might want to sit in on the new leader’s team meetings and one-on-ones with team members in order to build up this new leader. Do everything you can to reinforce his/her authority with the team and every individual on the team. But make sure to take every opportunity you can to help the new leader refine and improve his/her management techniques.
Pay close attention every step of the way, and evaluate the new leader in her new role. Some new leaders will practice the basics with great discipline; some will not. Some will be consistent in their application of the basics; some will not. Some will grow comfortable in their new leadership roles; some will not. And some will simply fail in the leadership role. But it turns out that with the right amount of guidance and support, most people who are very good at their jobs and committed to their work and career have the ability to grow into strong competent leaders.
With this kind of sustained low-tech, hands-on leadership development effort and constant evaluation, you can develop your future leaders. Who will move along that path and grow into a high-level leader? Do not look for those Millennials who are comfortable slapping people down. Do not look for those who love the power. Do not look for the biggest egos or the loudest, most confident voices. Do not be lured by charisma, passion, enthusiasm, and energy.
Look for Millennials who love the responsibility and the service. Look for those who consistently practice the basics of management with discipline. Look for those who spend the most time patiently teaching. Look for those who want to lift people up and make them better. They will likely be your future leaders.
https://www.inc.com/james-kerr/how-to-create-next-generation-of-leaders-at-your-company.html
http://resources.kineo.com/5-steps-to-building-next-generation-leaders
https://www.inc.com/ilya-pozin/science-says-this-approach-will-make-you-successful_1.html
Feature Image: strategiclinks.info