I’ve lived and worked my entire professional life — more than 30 years — in small business and spent the last several years writing about the workplace, motivating people and engaging the workforce. I’m convinced the antiquated notions of command-and-control management styles are flawed and the military style of leadership the World War II generation brought back from Europe and the Pacific — which the Baby Boomers later embraced, and influenced how we learned to manage — doesn’t foster an engaged and productive workforce, but does just the opposite.
Earlier this week, I interviewed Aaron McDaniel, a young author and executive at AT&T, on the Business Fuel podcast. We talked about the challenges of being a young manager, leading teams and creating an environment where people can perform at their best. Although his book “The Young Professional’s Guide to Managing” is intended to help millennials who are becoming managers, there’s good practical advice for anyone with a leadership role.
Over the course of our conversation, it became apparent that the secrets associated with successful leadership aren’t really rocket science — they aren’t really even secrets — they’re common sense. I’ve observed that the best leaders have some traits in common. And, during those times my actions have mirrored my intent, I’ve seen great results myself.
1. Give people space to learn: A few years back, when I first started podcasting, my boss at the time was very encouraging as I was experimenting and learning the ropes. “There’s an old Russian saying,” he once told me. “The first pancake always fails.” He then went on to explain how our audience would be the smallest when we were just getting started and I made the most mistakes. He wasn’t worried about whether our first podcast was “perfect,” he wanted me to go through that first pancake — he had confidence that I would figure out my role and get better with each broadcast. Great leaders give people the space to make mistakes, figure out their role and contribution and push through the first pancake.
2. Empower people with autonomy: The people closest to the work really understand it best. I can’t count the number of times I’ve witnessed highly competent people join the ranks of management and soon forget all about their experience on the shop floor. Instead of respecting the opinions of those closest to the work, these leaders make judgments based upon what they think, how they want it to be, or their gut instinct about things.
The most successful leaders I’ve known give their people the ability to make decisions about how they’re going to do their work and whom they’re going to do it with. I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but I’ve watched self-organized teams of volunteers, who understand their objectives and are jazzed by their mission, outperform formally organized work groups without even breaking a sweat. Smart leaders empower their team by giving them autonomy.
3. Inspire people with a vision: Early in my career, I was often expected to do things a certain way because that’s the way my boss wanted things done. Most of the time, he was right — but not always. Managing his business and his employees that way helped him make money, but it didn’t help him inspire his employees to perform at their best. I’m convinced that people want to contribute to something worthwhile.
They want to be a part of something bigger than they would be able to do on their own. They want a mission and a vision they can get behind. Our company vision is to help small-business owners find the financing they need to fuel their American dream. By matching business owners with small-business financing, we’re helping keep “Main Street” — and the businesses we all identify with as small businesses — grow and thrive. After all, since the 70s, small businesses have collectively been the biggest job creators in the country. The best leaders inspire people.
4. Trust your people: Emerson said, “Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.” Over the years I’ve worked with and observed many people who said they trust their people. Most of the time it was just their lips moving. They demonstrated their lack of trust by how they micro-managed their teams, watched the clock and tried to program every move.
A couple weeks ago, Brock Blake, our CEO, demonstrated his trust in us by announcing a new vacation policy. He implemented an unlimited PTO policy at Lendio. I’ve written about this type of PTO approach before and have to admit — it’s pretty heady stuff. I’m not excited by the new policy because it means nobody will be counting my days off. I’m excited that nobody is counting my days off because it demonstrates trust and my ability to manage my time. People respond to leaders who exhibit trust in them.
5. Allow people to make commitments and expect them to be accountable: When people are allowed to make commitments about what they can do instead of being told what they will do, we get their best work. I’m not suggesting that we throw direction out the window, but if we are really committed to giving people some autonomy over what they do, arbitrary deadlines don’t work. I didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday — I know there are times when heroic efforts are required, but if that’s the case every day, you have bigger problems on your hands.
Most people don’t make commitments lightly. In fact, I’ve watched people move heaven and earth to meet a commitment regarding a deadline while they don’t have to take the same ownership of an arbitrary deadline. What’s more, when I expect my people to be accountable, they understand the expectation includes their need to keep me up to date on how things are going. In fact, if I need to reschedule a one-on-one for some reason, they’re anxious to get that meeting back on the calendar. Wise leaders give people opportunities to make commitments and accept accountability.
I wish I could say I’m consistent with how successfully this happens on my team. I can say that when I am, they perform at a higher level — and that includes the vendor partners I consider part of my team, too.
As a main street business evangelist and marketing veteran with more than 25 years in the trenches, Ty Kiisel writes about leading people and small-business issues for lendio.com.