Leadership Renewal

What if you’re not a new leader on the scene in a way whatsoever, but you wish you could start some or all of your management relationships anew?

Managers often say, “I can see now that I should be a stronger, more engaged manager, but I’ve been in this role managing many of the same people for years on end.” These mangers often ask: “How can I possibly just change my management style one day?”

Often these are long-standing workplace relationships. So the employees in question are accustomed to the way they’ve always interacted with this manager. If you make a big change they are going to feel it. They might even challenge you on the legitimacy of your change effort or doubt the likelihood of you success.

That’s why it’s best not to rush into a big change in your management relationships. Keep in mind that becoming a strong manager is not about putting your foot down, but rather much more like talking a walk every day. You need to be in this for the long haul if it’s going to work. So stop and think. Make sure you are ready psychologically. Make sure you are ready tactically. Make sure you have made all the preparations necessary.

It takes guts to make a big change; that's true whether you are considering a wholesale renewal of your management style or just a renewal of one or more specific management relationships.

Start with high engagement. The beginning is your best opportunity to reestablish the ground rules for your working relationship. This is your chance to create a new clarity and alignment:

• This is our mission.
• This our work relates to the mission.
• This is how we operate from now on.
• These are our core values.
• These are our standards. This is how I’m going to operate from now on.
• This is what I’m doing to do to help you from now on.
• This is what I have to offer you in return.

First and foremost, that means dedicating the time for high-structure, high-substance team meetings and regular, ongoing one-on-one dialogues starting on day one of your renewal. Take heart. This is good news! Think about it: you are about to let your people know that you are making a new commitment to the essentials of leadership. How can anyone on your team truly object when you say: “I’m going to be stronger (In a good way) and more highly engaged from now on”? Craft your own message with the key elements of the “Good news!” message:

• I am going to strive to live up to the huge responsibility of leadership.
• I’m going to spell out expectations for you and help you plan your work.
• I’m going to track performance.
• I’m going to help you learn, get tools and resources, solve problems, and earn more.
• I need your help in becoming a stronger, better manager.

Perhaps the toughest part of renewal is sticking with it (Read: Homeostasis). Like any change in habits, it’s not easy to stay on the wagon. For a leader with long-standing relationships, it could be very tempting to fall off the wagon and go back to your old management habits. So you have to be diligent and vigilant for weeks or months or sometime longer before the changes really become the new normal.

Every step of the way, keep asking yourself:

• Who needs to be managed more closely?
• Who needs more responsibly and autonomy?
• Who needs help navigating the complex, ever-changing workplace?
• Who needs help with the fundamentals of self-management?
• Who needs performance coaching to speed up or slow down?
• Who has a great attitude, and who needs an attitude adjustment?
• Who is likely to improve? Who is not? (Beware of the self-fulling prophecy)
• Who should be coached up? Who should be coached out?
• Who are the best people? Who are the real performance problems?

Yes, consistently is critical. But even more important is knowing what to do when you fall off the strong-leadership wagon for a while. Don’t beat yourself up if you miss a day or a week or a month or years. Just stop and think. Prepare yourself. And then get right back to being strong and engaged. One person at a time. One day at a time.

The solution to nearly every management challenge comes from consistently practicing the fundamentals very well. That means maintaining an ongoing schedule of high-quality, one-on-one dialogues with every single person you manage.

If you consistently practice the fundamentals you will quickly see results: increased employee performance and morale, increased retention of high performers, increased turnover among low performers, and significant, measurable improvements in business outcomes. Not only that, but you will find yourself spending a steadily diminishing amount of you time on “firefighting.”

It is not easy to practice the fundamentals with rigor and consistency. To get going, you need to overcome three big hurdles:

First, you have to make the transition, which may require that you find new reserves of energy, conviction, and follow-through. Going from not maintaining high-structure, high-substance, ongoing, one-on-one dialogue with every direct report to establishing that practice requires that you change personally and professionally, communicate this to colleagues and superiors, roll it out to direct reports, and the start doing it.

Second, you’ll find it’s time-consuming, at first. Getting back to the fundamentals usually requires a significant up-front investment of extra time. If you haven’t been doing it before, you will still have to fight all the fires you have not prevented at the same time you are heavily investing time in preventing future fires. This could take up twice as much of your time for a while, until all the old fires die out.

Third, you need to stay ahead of the vicious cycle. You have to use discipline and focus to consistently spend your management time where it should be spent—upfront, every step of the way, before anything goes right, wrong, or average.

If you commit to this—consistently maintaining the high-structure, high-substance, ongoing, one-one-one dialogues—in a matter of weeks everything will get much better. Plus, you will start getting your time back—and then some.

Of course, the really hard part is truly sticking close to the fundamentals even when the heat is on. Don’t let the crisis throw you off your came. If you finding yourself slipping away from the fundamentals—if you have a bad day, week, or year—just bounce back. Get back on your game and start practicing the fundamentals again, with rigor and consistency, one person at a time, one day at a time.

The fundamentals are all you need.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

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