How to Be a Motivational Force: Part 1 of 4 - Reshaping Your Leadership Identity.

In the realm of leadership, the journey from being appointed to a position of authority to truly leading is profound and transformative. This transformation is not just about acquiring new skills or mastering the art of delegation. It's about a fundamental shift in how we see ourselves and our role within the organization. This first article in our four-part series delves into the essence of this transformation, guiding you from the traditional stance of "being in charge" to a more impactful perspective of "I am responsible for..."

The Shift from Authority to Responsibility

When we step into leadership roles, the initial understanding often revolves around being in control. We're told, and we believe, that being in charge is the crux of leadership. However, this perception is rapidly becoming obsolete in the modern workplace. The true essence of leadership today lies not in wielding authority but in facilitating success, driving outcomes, and ensuring the well-being of our teams.

Today’s successful manager is a facilitator who helps people do and become their best.? Autocratic leadership is dead.? This transition to a new personal identity can be difficult for managers who are used to being “in charge,” i.e., holding the reigns tightly, making all the critical decisions, and constantly being aware of their team members’ whereabouts and activities.? Embracing a new approach requires a significant shift in mindset and methods.

We know as new leaders, we have to learn many new skills.? That is exactly what Harvard Professor Linda Hill observed when she followed a group of 19 managers during the first year of their new leadership responsibilities.? However, what she revealed from her observations may surprise you.? In her book Becoming a Manager: How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership, she revealed a crucial insight.? Becoming a manager isn’t just about learning new skills – it’s about a fundamental shift in self-perception, a change in personal identity.

Embracing a New Leadership Identity

Reflect for a moment on someone from your past who significantly influenced you. This person saw potential in you, believed in you, and inspired you to believe in yourself. This influence likely came from their genuine concern for your success and well-being, not from a position of authority. This is the essence of the leadership identity we aim to cultivate.

Now, you may say that was in sports, my childhood, or a long time ago – but what we’re talking about today is business.? How does this relate to motivating my people in the workplace?? If you’ve read my past articles or attended any of my workshops or classes, you may have noticed that I never refer to myself as being in charge. ?Because long ago, I changed my self-perception. ?I will gladly talk about the employees I was “responsible” for.? Or the divisions I was responsible for.? I substitute “in-charge” with my self-perception of being responsible for…

Responsible For… Outcomes

Every promotion, at every level, comes with three foundational responsibilities.? As mentioned in the previous paragraph, yes, this is a business operation, so the first thing you’re responsible for as a leader is achieving results.? You’re responsible for getting results consistent with the organization’s goals and objectives, as well as the expectations your boss has placed upon you.? I refer to those results as outcomes.? Your number one responsibility is to the organization and achieving specific outcomes.? But that number one responsibility is in a photo-finish with the number two responsibility, and that is your responsibility to facilitate the success of your people.

Before you are a leader, success is about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others." - Jack Welch

Responsible For… Facilitating the Success of Your People

A consultant I follow who provides services to small failing businesses frequently runs into the same dysfunction in all these failing businesses.? While the exact words he shares with each owner may differ, the foundation of the message is the same, and those words are usually similar to, “Your employees are failing every day because you never set them up to succeed.? They’re not properly trained, and no systems are in place.”? If you as the leader do not facilitate the success of your people, how do you expect your business to succeed?

Two parallel paths must be addressed for employee success: creating a work environment for success and employee development.? Creating an environment for success means you have systems in place that are efficient and meaningful.? Well established businesses that have been around for years already have systems in place, but the challenge is that the established (old) system may not have kept pace with the changing environment.? Poorly structured, outdated systems will detract from employee morale and motivation. ?And management may be resistant to considering any changes.? The challenge here is a syndrome often associated with the engineering field: ugly baby syndrome.? The idea is that when an engineer is challenged on their design or their creation, their immediate subconscious response may be, “Don’t call my baby ugly.”? Systems in the workplace can be the same way, especially if the boss created the system.? Any suggestion for improvement may face resistance in the form of – don’t call my baby ugly.? If you were the creator of a system or will be creating a system, keep the “Twelve-Foot Rule” in mind.? The twelve-foot rule says that when creating a solution for any problem, people within twelve feet of the problem should be involved in creating the solution.? You may have been within twelve feet of the problem years ago when you created the ugly baby solution.? But now you’ve been promoted away from that position, and the people who know the most about the problem today are those who do the work day in and day out, i.e., within twelve feet of the problem.? They will have the best insight into the proper solution.

The second path in facilitating success for your people is to ensure they have the necessary training and tools to succeed in their roles.? Beyond that, you can support their personal development by providing cross-training opportunities, setting individual performance metrics, and offering constructive feedback.? You can help them develop their long-term career goals and help them develop a plan to achieve them.? And most importantly, recognize their unique strengths and give them opportunities to use them.? Facilitating the success of your employees is only one of the three leadership responsibilities you have incurred, but it has several ancillary benefits.

"Never tell someone how to do something. Just tell them what needs to be done and get out of their way. Their ingenuity will amaze you." - General George S. Patton, Jr.

By-products of Facilitating Success

In Simon Sinek’s book Start with Why, he says business profitability is a “by-product” of doing what you do better than the competition. ?There are three by-products of facilitating an employee’s success.? The first two are the employee’s trust in you and a greater level of engagement from the employee.? That trust and engagement result in additional discretionary effort and increased productivity.? The increased productivity feeds into your first responsibility – focusing on outcomes.

Reflect on that influential person in your life we identified earlier.? Did you try harder at whatever the endeavor was at the time?? Of course you did, we all did, because that person believed in us, which helped us believe in ourselves, and we didn’t want to disappoint them.? Which all led to a higher level of engagement and productivity.? When your employees believe you are committed to facilitating their success, rather than being the “in-charge” person who tightly holds the reigns and micromanages every step – their creativity and ingenuity will amaze you.

Responsible For… Safeguarding the Welfare

Your third leadership responsibility is to safeguard the welfare of your people.? We know we must ensure our people have the appropriate safety equipment, and the workplace is free of hazards, harassment and bullying – but safeguarding their welfare goes much deeper than that.

On February 28, 2024, a news article was posted here on LinkedIn from the Washington Square News, NYU’s Independent Student Newspaper.? The headline read, “Ex-NYU finance director pleads guilty in $3.5 million fraud scheme.”? (https://bit.ly/4c92zcj )? Rather than pointing a finger at the finance director and calling them a “bad apple,” under the responsibility of safeguarding their welfare, anyone who has the responsibility for safeguarding the welfare of this particular employee should be asking themselves this question: what could I have done, or what should I have done to prevent this from occurring?? As the leader with the responsibility to safeguard the welfare of my people – what is my culpability in this event?

If you have a finance director in your span of responsibility wherever you work this incident should be prompting you to ask yourself: have I done everything I can to prevent this from occurring in my workplace?? Do I have enough checks and balances in place?? Do I have regular audits in place? Have I created a culture of transparency and accountability? Have I trained my staff on recognizing signs of fraud or embezzlement, and have I invested the money in updated technology that will make it more difficult for fraudulent activities to go unnoticed?

What Could I Have Done, or What Should I Have Done

When an employee you’re responsible for gets in trouble, whether it’s a termination or criminal charges, the first thing you should ask yourself is: what is my culpability in this?? What could I have done, or what should I have done to prevent this from occurring?? It often takes a crisis like this to prompt the proper action from management.? But as a leader who is responsible for safeguarding the welfare of your people, you should be proactive about preventing a workplace crisis.

"One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency." - Arnold Glasow

From Crisis Management to Proactive Leadership

I don’t know any specifics about the NYU incident other than what’s in the article so I can’t comment on any actions before or after the event in that case.? However, I am aware of a crisis that occurred in another organization.? The crisis resulted in the employee getting fired and charged criminally.? The CEO immediately invested money in new software and hardware and changed procedures and staffing to prevent the crisis from recurring.? This shows the resources were already available to prevent this crisis – to prevent the employee from being terminated and charged criminally.? But it took a crisis for anyone to pay attention to the outdated systems that allowed this crisis to occur.? Once it became a crisis, it suddenly became the number one priority – it’s just that it was never a priority until it became a crisis.? Don’t manage by crisis; be proactive about preventing the crisis.

Gordon Graham is a risk management consultant who has traveled the country with a memorable risk management tagline – “if it’s predictable, it’s preventable.”? Yet we can look at a crisis like NYU's and convince ourselves that no one in our organization would ever do such a thing.? I’m certain the leaders at NYU said the same thing – until it happened to them.? And this wasn’t the first embezzlement case in the country – it’s not like it has never happened before.? What things are occurring elsewhere in your industry that constitute an organizational crisis?? Are you fulfilling your responsibility to safeguard your people?? Remember what Mr. Graham says, if it’s predictable – it’s preventable.

Additionally, consider these options on a more personal level of safeguarding the welfare of people you’re responsible for.? Support mental health, encourage work-life balance, foster a culture of open communication, encourage physical activity and healthy living, and conduct regular risk assessments.? And above all, have a zero tolerance for harassment and bullying, promote ethical behavior, and ensure compliance with rules and regulations.

In Real Life

One compelling real-life leadership story where the leader's success was directly tied to their followers' success is the transformation of the USS Santa Fe under the command of Captain David Marquet. This story is detailed in Marquet's book, "Turn the Ship Around! A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders."

When Captain Marquet took command of the USS Santa Fe, it was one of the poorest-performing submarines in the U.S. Navy, characterized by low morale, poor performance evaluations, and a high attrition rate among its crew.

Marquet recognized that the traditional leader-follower model, where orders are given from the top down and not questioned (i.e., holding the reigns tightly), was not effective. He implemented a "leader-leader" model to empower every crew member to take leadership at their level.

I don't want to spoil the book for you if you haven’t already read it, but the results of Captain Marquet’s changes were remarkable. The USS Santa Fe went from being the worst in the fleet to winning awards and promoting a disproportionate number of officers to submarine command. The crew became fully engaged, contributing their full intellectual capacity every day, which led to a significant turnaround in the submarine's performance.

In Real Life – 2

In a difficult situation, one leader who exemplified prioritizing the welfare of his crew was Ernest Shackleton during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-1917. Shackleton's leadership during the expedition, particularly when his ship, the Endurance, became trapped and was eventually crushed by ice in the Weddell Sea, is a testament to his commitment to his crew's survival and well-being.

Shackleton's leadership is characterized by his unwavering commitment to his crew's welfare, ability to adapt to changing circumstances, and exceptional skills in navigating through adversity. His actions ensured the survival of all 28 crew members over two years in one of the most inhospitable environments on earth, without losing a single life. Shackleton's story is a powerful example of how prioritizing the success and well-being of followers, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges, can lead to extraordinary outcomes.

Conclusion: The Foundation of Motivational Leadership

As we conclude the first part of our series, it's clear that the foundation of motivational leadership lies in reshaping our identity as leaders. By transitioning from a mindset of control to one of responsibility, we can unlock the true potential of our teams. This shift is not just about changing how we view our roles; it's about transforming the very nature of leadership itself.

Remember, I’m responsible for…

·???????? Focusing on outcomes

·???????? Facilitating the success of my people

·???????? Safeguarding the welfare of my people

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In next week’s article,

How to Be a Motivational Force: Part 2 of 4 – Theories of Motivation,

we will explore the intricacies of what motivates people and how understanding these motivations can enhance our leadership effectiveness. As we progress through this series, you’ll begin to see the symphony of leadership skills coming together, the big picture will begin to come into focus, and your next steps toward learning how to motivate people in the workplace will become clear.

In the meantime, please share your experience(s) in the comments. Let's all learn from each other. Do you have personal experience(s) of a leader shifting their leadership identity? What were the outcomes? Do you agree or disagree with the concept of being responsible for...? I'd love to read your comments.