Leadership Hammer: Recent Episodes
Wisdom Engine
The leader has to set intent clearly, then offer structures to help the team. Then to listen to the team through their brains, not the leader's.
The leaders have to know the capabilities of their people who help guide the training and tune the level of control.
Flipping in upside down from leaders leaning into those below, to those below leaning into the leaders.
By being quiet you create the space for your team to innovate and take decisions. Creating thinking minds vs. moving hands.
Take this away and give people back their jobs. If you want to know what's going on, go and see your team, or have them lean into you.
Addiction to owning someone else's job, because you know it all, or are too afraid they'll screw up.
Empowerment means nothing. What would it look and sound like in the office? That's empowerment.
With competence and clarity comes responsibility and ownership. If the leader stops being the Idea Fairy and giving orders.
When people what you to tell them what to do. If they can't provide a way forward, explore is it their lack of competence, clarity or motivation?
The story of one agreement turning into the fully flowing ownership seen on the ship by Stephen Covey.
keeping a journal will let you get into the depths of the think that was bothering the most, or think that went well for the week.
You can only give away control when people are clear on the intent of the org, there's a structure, and people are competent.
Listen first, don't be the idea fairy. First seek to understand, then to be understood.
Vulnerable leaders who don't know everything vs. command and control know all tell all leaders.
He goes on to say it started him thinking on how to be a different leader. He didn't come up with the idea, he was forced.
You can do this when you feel the team is ready for it. But keep inviting them up the ownership ladder.
Marquet explains his disastrous time on the USS Will Rogers when he created chaos by giving away control to people too quickly.
Unless you want to be solving their problems for the next 1000 years, this is what you need to do.
Leaders don't make the company all about them. If they leave, the company continues to thrive.
When great leaders are comfortable not giving orders this is a sign of the state of your organization. High trust, predictable delivery.
Invite people up the ladder of control with competence and clarity. Ask people the question "how confident are you that you can do this?" or "have you done this before?"
By telling people what to do you create dependency, not capability. By telling people what to do you start to own their job. It should only be reserved for emergency situations on critical decisions or with low competence people.
He goes into how he leaned back, but they had to lean into him. Ownership comes with responsibility of leaning in.
He doesn't believe in the phase "empowerment" but that a culture is made up of language that drives ownership or doesn't.
This dispels the myth that David showed up on the submarine with some grand master plan. He's a hard working, smart guy, who applies system thinking.