Making Leaders.
Because the last thing we need is more managers.
Over the last 8 years, I’ve managed all kinds of people: creatives, product people, marketers and developers in an equally diverse assortment of orgnisations — a church (it’s a long story), advertising agencies (more than i’d care to count), digital agencies (the gateway drug) and product companies (where it’s at).
In every organization where I’ve led people, the format and structure of management has changed but the principles i’ve synthesized over the years have held true, irrespective of org structure and culture.
I should probably start by saying that managing people is a horrible job of containment and discipline. But creating a space that inspires people to leadership — first of their own careers and eventually others — is something I’ve grown to love more than anything else in my 9 to 5.
Leaders Exist to Create Leaders
The primary deliverable of a leader is to create more leaders. Leaders can can only be created where there is trust, deferment and opportunity. Your job as a leader is to create an environment filled with those qualities.
Leadership > Management.
Talented people can manage themselves. Management is concerned with perfecting and protecting what exists. Leaders multiply the effectiveness of talented self managing professionals and move teams to new horizons.
Recognize Leaders Early and Often.
Chances are you already have leaders in your organisation who aren’t in “management”. They’re easy to spot –they’re the ones people are following. Find people whose example, practices and ideas are being followed and give them incremental opportunities to lead.
Centralize Responsibility but Decentralize Power.
Increase the scope and opportunities for who are not leaders to self organize and self determine. At the same time hold leaders responsible for delivery. This creates a healthy tension between autonomy and accountability.
Multiply frontiers for Leadership.
Some people are thought leaders, some are leaders in craft, some are great at moving a team from point A to B. The narrower your organisation’s view of leadership, the fewer leaders you’ll find you have. But broaden that definition and you’ll find leaders under every rock.
Mutual Deference. Practise it. Expect it.
Create a habit of deferring to people you trust publicly. Defer to people you’d like to trust. You’ll find that when you need to make a defacto call, your people will have confidence in your assertion.
Serve
Put yourself deliberately in positions where you are subject to your “subordinates” — for example work in a team, that you are not leading. Ask a team member if you can take something off their backlog of to-do’s.
My experience is that this creates an engine room for leadership multiplication. When I consistently do these (or even some of them) I find leadership qualities appearing in people all around me.
Maybe you’ve got more leaders around you than you realise, but you’re too busy looking for managers. Don’t do that. Get leaders, and let the adults manage themselves.