Leading Through Others
Megan Reid
Leadership Expert | Operations & Change Consultant | I help leaders and managers effectively lead through others.
When I consider leadership and how I have led through various roles, the opportunity to lead through others is probably the most significant idea or approach that made the most significant shift in my personal leadership.
It took a while for me to understand the real privilege and honour it is to be charged with leading others. To be fair, I was leading a department from 22 years old, so I was learning how to lead while in the role.
Which is what so many of us do right? We are promoted because of our expertise, or for some (like me) have a drive to lead and seek it out.
I know that being a young woman in leadership had its challenges – with comments like “you’re very young” or “are you planning to have a family”, or when I did have a family “it must be hard to juggle family and work”.
I didn’t really appreciate it at the time, but on reflection, yes I was young, yes it was hard to juggle at times – but that was not how I defined myself as a leader.
As I grew as a leader, with more responsibilities, larger teams and teams of teams, I learned that knowing what strengths and skills I brought to the table was key. Key because I always wanted to play to my strengths and skills, but even more key was it helped me when I was building a team.
When I came to realise that my purpose as a people leader was to lead through my team, I knew then that I did not need a team of mini me’s, those who had the same strengths and skills. This is often to go to for new leaders and I get it. It is so much easier to lead in a team when you all have similar goals, passions, strengths and skills. But you are subject to ‘group think’ and innovation and drive for excellence can be hampered.
I realised that if I was to truly lead through others, I required diverse skills, expertise, experience to innovate and drive excellence. This alone does not build a great team though. It is this in conjunction with a prerequisite of having shared understanding of purpose.
Another key component to building an excellent team is to hire well, and ‘fire’ well. In the public sector it would be fair to say that you don’t really fire people – this is hard, a long process and can often create such a negative impact in the team and this is why I use fire well in inverted commas.
While firing is sometimes not a viable option, understanding that there is a misalignment (whether it be skills, expertise, shared understanding, purpose) and working together to find better suited opportunities is a skill many managers and leaders need to develop. It is both respectful and the right thing to do to provide support and encouragement to those who have skills that would be better served elsewhere to be supported and encouraged to pursue these. Get this right, and it will have long-term rewards.
There is much talk and research about culture and how this impacts on team productivity, innovation and performance.
Knowing that most people turn up to work to do a good job and find connection and reward in what they deliver should be your starting point. Knowing this helps to understand that when you set expectations and goals, nine times out ten your people will exceed these.
When you build trust and understanding, demonstrate empathy and vulnerability your team is more likely to want to strive for more – which in turn delivers unlocked potential, innovation and performance.
In terms of connection, this needs to be on two levels and is something that is often missed by leaders. Your people want to connect with each other, which includes with you as an individual AND to the organisation’s strategy and vision. Get this part right and connection leads to a sense of community, belonging and an alignment of values and purpose.
Remember that your 1:1 catch ups are more than a discussion about the current tasks and activities on top. It is a real opportunity to connect with your team members. And if you are new to coaching, or just like a bit of structure and support, do check out my coaching template. It provides you with six questions to help frame your regular catch ups.
My team’s used to joke when I came back from a leadership team meeting or meetings with a Minister and ask, “what opportunities do we have now?”.
How I framed the ‘opportunities’ that we were provided was key to our successful delivery. It also provided a space to check in and ensure we were all on the same page around what needed to be delivered, how me might go about that, and what might need to be paused or stopped to achieve it. I needed this conversation and clarity to be clear about the trade-offs we would need to be making with other leaders and decision makers. I also needed this to ensure our teams would be working towards the same goal and could articulate to their teams around ‘why’ we were doing this and what we had permission to pause and stop.
Getting this clarity also allowed us to innovate. Because once the frame for our work was set, I was always very clear that if what you are doing or want to explore falls within that frame – you go for it! When something falls outside the frame, we need to have another conversation to make deliberate decisions.
If you want to drive innovation and excellence, then frame opportunities right. And when you have a great team culture and fit of people in play, you can co-design, collaborate and create exciting responses to problems, challenges and new opportunities.
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Leading through others can be a hard concept to believe in and really live. The rewards in this approach can be amazing. When you give up needing to be the knowledge holder, the gate keeper of decisions, the owner of success, your team will innovate and perform beyond your expectations.
But it does take a courageous leader to truly lead this way.
You have to be willing to show up not knowing everything all the time and rely on the expertise and skills your team have in spades.
And this must be done in a way that builds a good team culture and working environment. Where your people are more than their titles and roles. That they are able and encouraged to play to their strengths even is it is outside of their job description.
It can be a longer game to play, but one that will surprise you unexpectedly with such positive rewards that I believe it is well worth the effort.
Leading through others is your privilege – so make the most of it!
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