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Decision-makers

Some leaders are good at making decisions.
Others are good at making it obvious how decisions are made.

Both can lead an organization to incredible success. But only the latter teaches the organization how to sustain that success after their departure.

I’ve worked with both types of leaders.

The first type of leader acts like a discerning judge. They would argue that their job is to listen closely to all perspectives and then make the final call.

The second type is more like a mentor, guiding the team in understanding the decision-making process itself. They would argue that their job is to articulate how choices are made in the best interest of the organization and foster a culture of meaningful discussions. In this environment, anyone is equipped to make informed choices for the group.

While one leader makes the decisions, the other empowers everyone to be decision-makers.

The former leads the way, the latter lights the path.

PS: I’m writing a new book that teaches you how to communicate effectively so that your team knows how to make choices. It’s going the be published in 2024. If you want to get notified, click here!

Context isn’t a luxury

When you just throw tasks at your team without context, what do you get? People doing the bare minimum because they don’t see the bigger picture.

But when you take a moment to explain the ‘why’, it’s a game-changer. Instead of micromanaging you pursue clarity. Instead of throwing tasks at them you empower them to make choices. Instead of blindly following orders, your team can innovate and take charge.

Think of it this way: just handing someone a puzzle piece versus showing them the full image.

Context isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity.

By offering clarity, you’re not just getting tasks done, you’re building leaders.

Take the time to explain things.When everyone gets it, they can take charge.

Your CEO

How do you perceive your CEO’s communication strength?

  • Clearly lighting the path for the whole team!
  • Doing ok!
  • Not so great!
  • Did you say “CEO’s communication”?

Culture Clash

When companies merge, cultures clash.

The stronger the cultures, the bigger the clash; the bigger the clash, the stronger the future needs to be to fix the clash.

If everyone is enthusiastic about where we are going together, why we are going there, and why it’s important that it’s all of us, then mergers succeed.

However, if that path remains vague or confusing, the merger is likely to fail.

If leadership is afraid to clearly light the path, the merger is likely to fail.

Leaders light the path. When two teams merge on a new, common path, lighting it brightly and clearly is one of the most important tasks of the leadership.

How do we get our team on track?

Here’s a more useful question to ask: What would make them choose the track if they had the choice?

Great leaders understand that brilliant people are self-motivated. You don’t need to “get them on track”. They are the first to jump on the track if they believe that it’s the right track – one that allows them to do meaningful work they can be proud of.

So, what would make it obvious to your team that yours is the right track? (Is it?)

Empowerment

“Empowerment” is a fancy way of saying that you trust your team with making decisions.

Unfortunately, what some leaders mean when they use that word is that they really only trust their team to the extent that they make the same decisions as the leader themselves would – which, in turn, creates more insecurity than it creates empowerment: “Is that really the decision that the boss would have made?” So, the boss ends up remaining the bottleneck of decision making (a huge source of frustration for many teams.)

True empowerment goes beyond that. It grows from razor sharp clarity about a common goal and a feeling that this is the goal we all share. From the leader it requires the empathy to see how that goal aligns with the goals of the team and the individuals who form the team.

This makes communication one of the crucial skills of the leader. I call that “lighting the path”: This is who we are and this is where we go.

Having a path that the team aligns on, allows us to decide. It allows anyone to decide. When the team is focused towards that common goal, it simplifies decision making and empowers every team member to make decisions on behalf of the team. Not only does the leader care for the team but, in fact, any team member does. Because all care for the same thing.

Am I still good enough?

„You think I’m still good enough for the team?“ Kevin’s question struck Taylor by surprise.

„What?“ she replies.

„I mean everyone’s doing such a phenomenal job and I feel that I’m just not getting the results.“

Honestly, Taylor didn’t even know what he was talking about. Kevin was the most brilliant analyst she had ever worked with. How on earth could he even consider to be trailing the others? Where did these self-doubts come from?

Taylor had always been of the impression that Kevin was pushing hard and that he was striving for more. She appreciated it a lot that he took every advice and every suggestion to push even harder and come up with even better results.

Yet, Taylor made a mistake that many leaders make sooner or later:

She took the extraordinary for granted.

And, in a way, the same was true for the whole team. Being the ambitious group they are, they just took for granted to push further. To demand more. To keep asking for more.

But what’s the problem with that?

She certainly didn’t mean it, but by focusing on the goal, Taylor had lost sight of her team – and so did everyone else.

When we build remarkable things, we do so by pushing further. We tend to always look at what can be improved rather than what’s been achieved.

And Taylor was great at pushing further and demanding better. It’s what got her there. But it’s also what crushed Kevin.

While pushing further is a good thing, in principle, and while it’s also, in a way, the professional thing to do, we’re still human. And as human beings we not only want to be seen. We need to be seen.

What Kevin was never getting was the occasional “Thank you!”. Or the occasional “Well done!”. Not to speak of the “That’s absolutely brilliant!” that just feels great to hear every once in a while.

Instead, by focussing every single discussion on the things that could be better, he got the impression that he wasn’t good to start with. Because there was always a better, Kevin got the impression that there was no good.

People need to be seen for their achievements. That’s what Kevin was missing.

When you think about it, what your team has achieved is indeed far from ordinary. Every single one of them worked so hard. Every single one of them took responsibility for their part of the work.

It’s a good habit to appreciate that every once in a while. Pointing out extraordinary achievements. Acknowledging extraordinary contributions even if they are not visible to everyone. Or just saying thank you.

Today’s a good day (as is any other day) to do just that.

Communicating for the boss

… is a real problem and leaders should be extra careful when they observe their team members doing it.

Communicating for the boss means saying things that the boss wants to hear. It means preparing the pitch to please the boss – as opposed to the customer. It means shifting the content so it makes them look good rather than being truthful.

Fixing this is the leader’s job. They need to create an environment that’s built on trust, honesty, and respect. One that values getting it right rather than being right. A team where failures are an opportunity to grow rather than a reason to blame.

How to find out whether you’re doing it?

Conductor Benjamin Zander has a simple rule to find out:

“When their eyes are shining you know you’re doing it.” – Benjamin Zander

I have adopted that rule from the moment I first saw his great TED talk and it has served me really well ever since.

The moment that people see order from chaos, that they see the path that was there all along, yet hidden in darkness, that moment is often exactly when their eyes start shining.

When you’ve experienced that moment with your clients, your audience, your children or anyone else even once, there can only be one conclusion for any further conversation that you’re going to have:

“Who am I that their eyes are not shining?” – Benjamin Zander

Interview: Unleashing the potential of leaders and their teams

The world has changed. Leadership has changed. A lot. Not only in the last year, but fundamentally. And it won’t stop to change. I’ve had the pleasure of discussing what this means for tomorrow’s leaders with Annette Liebau, Global Head of Leadership Academy at Allianz, one of the world’s largest insurance companies.

The company has created a program called “#lead” to upskill 18,600 leaders across the globe from the smallest of teams to the C-suite. In this interview she allows us a peek into what the program does, why it’s important and how leadership at Allianz has evolved to live up to the requirements of a modern work culture that spans the globe.

We discussed how leaders can unleash the potential of their team, what differentiates modern leadership from more traditional approaches and how a global company can deal with digitization, cultural diversity, age diversity (today, a company might have employees spanning five generations) and much bigger expectations on the purpose of the company. Lots to learn here.

Read the full interview or listen to the podcast here: Unleashing the potential of leaders and their teams

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Dr. Michael Gerharz

Dr. Michael Gerharz