The Other 50%: Leadership Beyond Walls
What is the role of a leader in your organization?
Having spent years at only a handful of companies, I have “grown up” within these organizations, being moved from individual contributor, to manager, to executive at lightening speed. To be honest, it took me a while to understand how to let go. Sure, I knew my job was to develop strategy and knock down obstacles that got in the way of my team’s progress, but how was I supposed to prove my own value?
It didn’t help that most of the great leaders early in my path never articulated what it took to be successful. In fact, they were rarely present, popping in to review my progress, which most of the time was a pat on the back for a job “well done”. It wasn’t their fault, and personally I was a bit naive at the time — I didn’t realize that their vision and strategic development was coming from outside our four walls.
Many individuals turned leaders become serious micro managers. They look to find their self worth by attending a lot of meetings, voicing opinions and rolling up their sleeves to solve problems. This has negative ramifications on the employee base that is left feeling uncertain about their own role, while eroding trust in their capabilities.
Even the most seasoned leaders can fall into this trap from time to time. Have you ever stopped answering emails for a few days to see how much you are really needed to keep everything running? A healthy team needs very little oversight. So, what do you do with all of that newfound time when you let go?
What do you do with the other 50%?
Get yourself outside of the building.
Yup, I said it. Leave.
As an incredibly insightful employee once said to me,
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“I don’t understand why all of the executives are in the building”
Getting out of the building means spending time with your customers, studying the industry, learning from other brands, finding tomorrow’s strategies and initiatives. But it is also more than that — it gets you out of the way of your team, allowing them to manage today’s strategy and shine of their own accord.
For me personally, spending time with customers surfaced a deep understanding of who they are as people, their frustrations with the current process and products, how they felt about our brand and why they visited our competitors. It led to new product innovations and the creation of new business units that wouldn’t have existed without leaving the building.
Spending time with other marketers allowed me to assess our team’s structure, fueled new configurations, expedited the search for new vendors, which helped the team have better focus and exponentially grow our audience and retain our customers.
Guess what else happened? The team was happy, felt empowered, had direction and goals to accomplish. They began to get out of the building themselves, lead cross department teams and develop their own strategies.
I wish someone had shared this with me early in my career, which is what fueled writing this today. I would have had a much deeper appreciation. As a leader now, I strive to share these methods with my team so that they can participate in strategy development. It helps them understand what it takes to become a leader themselves, giving them a path to pursue and the confidence to let go.
So whether you are a leader, or on a team with a leader who is often out of the building, remember:
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It is better to have a leader breathing fresh air into the team, than sucking the wind out of it.
Michelle Denogean is the former CMO at Edmunds.com. She is a senior marketing executive, thought leader & practitioner in the world of business strategy, growth marketing, brand communications and digital disruption. Michelle is currently advising and consulting with companies looking to disrupt their respective industries. This post is part of her leadership {playbook}, intended to advise, inspire and mentor leaders at all levels.
Follow Michelle on Twitter: @DenogeanNow
http://michelledenogean.com
