Chapel Hill, NC

Monday, November 09, 2009

During a crisis, it's not uncommon for leaders to resort to a highly autocratic leadership style (or Command-and-Control, as others describe it). In this environment, leaders are highly dictatorial:  they make most of the decisions and disempower team members. Certainly the recent economic downturn has been a crisis for many companies, so it's completely understandable to find many leaders currently behaving this way.

Not every situation at work requires this type of leadership style though, and yet some managers never step out of this mode. So, it is always good to determine if moving towards a more consensus-driven leadership style is more appropriate for the success of your employees and your business.

Here are some important questions to consider. Think of these relative to whatever crisis has recently occurred:

1. Is there more time now to make decisions? If so, then work towards decision-making that is consensus-driven rather than autocratic. You have a much higher chance of driving buy-in and commitment with your team. This shift also has the added benefit of re-integrating disenfranchised employees who may have lost faith in the organization over the past several months.

2. Did the employees have the capabilities to make and own decisions before the crisis? If they did, consider restoring their authority, so that they can again participate in owning the outcomes for the company.

3. Have your employees learned something through the crisis that better equips them for making their own decisions? If they have, arm them with new responsibilities and accountabilities to reward them for their success during a difficult time.

4. Is your organizational vision and value-statement largely the same as before the crisis? If it is, you should be communicating these repeatedly and ensuring that your management team is doing the same.

If the crisis has fundamentally altered your business, and if new skills and behaviors are required, you may need to continue to operate as a hands-on, detail-oriented leader. If the business environment has changed to the point where employees no longer understand the big picture or are having difficulty performing their current jobs, it isn't time to start delegating new authority. When the time is right, though, there are considerable advantages to moving towards a shared leadershipstyle:

Tapping into employees' skills: Believe it or not, it's quite likely that your reports know how to do many things better than you. (Remember, they were probably responsible for them before the crisis required more centralized management.)

Freeing up YOUR time: Your role as a leader is to focus on strategy and innovation. Every minute spent on work that others could be doing is time lost working on YOUR responsibilities.

Employees learn about decision-making and accountability: Giving away decision-making authority and ownership of issues allows employees to experience ownership in the company. This promotes a sense of long-term investment in your organization and its success.

Employees feel trusted and valued: One of the most powerful leadership lessons that you can communicate to employees is that they're worthy of owning outcomes for the business.

Employees develop skills that will help them advance: We don't know when the next meltdown might be. Allowing employees to arm themselves with new skills will ensure that they'll be prepared to meet the next major business challenge.

Regardless of whetheryou're a hands-off or hands-on leader, there is one element of management that cannot be ignored --- providing feedback and appreciation. If you're naturally a hands-off manager, you'll assume that your direct-reports are going to do what is necessary to achieve the end objective. You CANNOT assume, however, that your direct-reports know what you thought of their performance or whether you appreciate what they did. This is one of the most important predictors of job satisfaction, so it is imperative to communicate directly to employees their value within the organization.

The vast majority of employees want to have more autonomy in their jobs. If you are managing managers, you especially need to give them back their authority if the crisis is behind you. Peter Drucker cynically wrote that "so much of management is making it difficult for employees to do their work." Consider getting out of the way so that employees CAN do what you pay them to do.

Nancy McGuire

President

McGuire Consulting Group, Inc

Chapel Hill, NC

919-967-3446

919 942 7202