Trust, empower, and delegate.
No doubt, but what if they don’t actually know how to play the game, do the job, or accomplish the mission?
I wish I could collect a royalty every time a leader tells me: “I’ve told them what I want, but they’re still not doing it!”
Buy-in can be an issue, for sure. Perhaps your team just doesn’t believe in the direction you are leading them into. But often, it’s even more basic than that: they’ve never done it, so they just don’t know how to do it. Perhaps they don’t even understand what you’re talking about. They hear the words, but they can’t see what you’re describing. They’re good people and they mean well, but they just don’t know how to do what you expect of them.
“But I’ve given a presentation on what I need from them. More than once!” Unfortunately, the fact that you’ve said it doesn’t mean that they understand.
When people don’t know how to do something, it can feel extremely daunting to them. And if their first attempts at doing it fall short, and they know you’re disappointed, you’ve just compounded the problem.
You can’t expect a yellow belt to perform at the level of a black belt, and you can’t be disappointed when they perform appropriately for the level they’re at. The question is: “How do I get them there?”
A lot of leaders are good at clarifying their expectations (many are not), but that’s not always the problem. Many are not great at teaching, coaching, and mentoring, which is what is required when your team needs to step up on something you know how to do, but they don’t.
“I’m here to set the vision and a clear direction, and to clarify everyone’s goals and objectives.”
Of course. But what about your talent development role?
It’s an manifestation of wisdom for leaders to know which hat to wear, when: when their team needs them to lean in, when they need them to step back. And sometimes, as a leader, you have to step onto the field and play the game with them, as a member of the team. “Let’s go learn how to do this, together.”
Perhaps you need to play a single game, but perhaps you need to play a full season of this new game with them until they’re really good at it, and then you can step back to the sidelines and watch them play without you.
“I don’t have time to train and develop them. They got promoted to their roles because they were supposed to know how to do their jobs.”
In fact, leading people and developing them are not two separate jobs. They go hand in hand. And who knows? Perhaps you’ll learn something new, too, and improve your own game!
