Two Simple Rules for Better Leadership

Learn to lead

Verne Harnish, author of Scaling Up says, “De-hassle, don’t de-motivate.”

If you’re in an ownership, leadership, or management role in your business then this applies to you.

Most adviser-owners find themselves in a leadership or management role by default. They started out as great technicians and/or salespeople. They now find themselves running a genuine and growing business.

So how do you lead when it’s not what you were trained to do? Here are a few rules that might help:

Rule 1 – Don’t de-motivate

I’m paraphrasing Verne from here on in, but Rule 1 for me is: don’t do things that will de-motivate your team.

There’s lots written about motivation, but in my view it’s mostly intrinsic. The more I’ve seen clients play around with incentive systems to motivate their team members, the more I’ve seen them get into serious trouble.

Trying to lead, or trying to be in charge, can be a recipe for disaster. In fact, in some cases where you have good people on your team, doing nothing would be better than what many managers I’ve worked with (in the distant past) do.

What if your goal wasn’t to lead, but to support the people that work for you?

It sort of changes everything.

I’ve heard it called a ‘servant leadership’ mindset, and I like that.

Which leads me to rule 2.

Rule 2 – De-hassle

If you focus your energy and efforts on supporting your people, a lot of your role becomes de-hassling. Taking away the hassles and roadblocks that get in the way of your team doing their jobs really well, and allowing them to get the satisfaction that comes from doing so.

Where are your team stuck, impeded, or held back in their ability to do their jobs?

Not really sure? Why not ask them?

A regular conversation with the team about where they might need some obstacles removed gives you the opportunity to create your own hit list of blockages to remove for them.

• Are they missing a skillset?
• Do they require more training and support in using existing technology better?
• Are they short handed or under resourced?

Keep up to date

For example, one firm I worked with knew that some of the office technology was getting long in the tooth. It was starting to impede the team doing their jobs. Although money was tight at the time, as we were turning things around, I still suggested that it was vital to replace the ageing technology. Even if they had to borrow some money.

They did invest, and it sent a powerful message to the team that they cared about them having the right tools. Several years on and the business is performing strongly.

When you look at this example, all they did was de-hassle, but it comes across as sound leadership.

Keep the conversation going

Another firm I worked with many years ago created training and development plans for everyone on the team. Sounds like a great idea, right?

At the end of the year, no one on the team had engaged in any of the development they’d committed to.

To be clear, this is a great business, with a fantastic group of people on the team, and a high-quality owner-leader at the helm. So what happened?

After some review, we realised just creating the plans with people, and the team had been involved all the way through, wasn’t enough. The conscientious and hard-working team members didn’t quite feel they could just book themselves on a course and disappear for a day.

That was the sticking point that needed to be be de-hassled.

The following year the owner became more hands on in helping people commit to what had been agreed. A relatively small but important step in improving the business and the team.

Get what you want

After reading Rocket Fuel, by Gino Wickman and Mark Winters, I discovered that the book had a LinkedIn group for Visionaries (owners) and Integrators (managers).

One manager quoted a conversation they’d had with the owner of the business. They told them in no uncertain terms, “You can do what you want, or you can get what you want. Pick one.”

I love it as a mantra to remind myself as an owner and leader in my own business, to stay focused on what we’re trying to achieve at FP Advance.

“Doing what I want” means not playing by the same rules as the team, or showing how smart I am and telling people what to do. I’ve been doing this a long time, you know.

“Getting what I want” means allowing good people to just get on with it. It means doing my part of the process to the best of my ability, so that I’m not the reason for any stuff ups. And if there are problems, to consider how they might be fixed or removed as problems. To be honest, on my team, usually that means asking a question and listening, as someone better than me comes up with a way to address it.

By adopting a de-hassle mindset as a leader you can dramatically improve your effectiveness, which allows the whole team to get what they want in the end.

Let me know how you go.

What if your goal wasn’t to lead, but to support the people that work for you?