Great Leadership Requires a Shift in Perspective and Responsibilities

A wise leader once shared with me that I was no longer the superhero. As a new leader, I now needed to put my cape away and create new superheroes instead.

A leader has many responsibilities, but let’s just focus on what you need to do for your team. Your role is to set a vision for where your group is going, give them feedback on how they are doing, coach them when they struggle with things, motivate them to deliver results and set an example for them so they learn the skills they need for the future.

A leader will have a to do list that may look like this: “Did I coach someone to move forward when they were stuck on something? Did I tell someone thank you for the work that they are doing? Did I delegate something to one of my team members so that they can learn it? Did I share some feedback with a team member to help them learn from an experience? Am I listening to my team when they provide feedback to me?” It is a different kind of to do list, but it is very important.

Your focus is to get things done through others and help them become leaders. The people who are the doers are your team members. You are now doing different things like influencing, coaching and thinking. For most new leaders that list of things isn’t easy to put on a “to do” list and so they feel like they aren’t “doing” what they should be doing.

This is a big shift for new leaders, but it is important to make it sooner rather than later. It can have a big impact on the perception of you as a leader and impact your ability to take on more responsibilities in the future.

Shifting from Doing to Leading

I have been leading some manager workshops over the past year to help them learn how to be leaders to their teams. There seems to be a common thought process that occurs (it happened to me too) when you take over your first team: “I am the leader of the team and I need to have all the answers.” Giving your team all of the answers is not helping them grow and it is actually the opposite of what you should do as a leader.

The challenge is that you are doing what you think you should do. “My management moved me into this role because I was really good at my last role and I need to prove myself by giving my team the answers so they can get things done.” Is that what your leader did for you? Leading a team doesn’t mean that you continue to do all the work, nor do you give them all the answers.

Leaders have a limited amount of time to get everything done throughout the day. You walk down the hall and people stop you to ask you a quick question as you are heading to your next meeting. It can be really easy to simply give the answer to the person, but that is short term thinking. What if you could help them learn how to come up with their own answers instead?

Your goal is to create a team that can solve problems, make decisions and think for themselves. That won’t happen if you do everything for them. It will take time to teach them how to do these things, but in the long run, they will be able to do this for themselves. It will also help you be able to focus on the things that you should be doing instead.

The easiest way to help your team is to stop giving them the answers. Coach them on how to find the answers for themselves instead. Ask them questions that will allow them to come up with their own answers. Obviously, this will be a different approach and will take intention on your part to do this consistently. Set the expectation that you will not be giving the answers anymore and you want to hear their ideas instead. Just imagine how your team can grow and develop when they build these skills to lead themselves and their teams.

Helping Your Team Grow by Providing Feedback

As a leader, it can be challenging to have to give developmental feedback to someone on your team. You may know what you want to say, but some planning should be done prior to the conversation. Some of the things to consider are:

• Share the feedback as soon as you can after the situation has occurred.
• What message do you want the person to take away?
• How can you give the feedback in the most direct way and focus on the facts?
• Ensure that you co-create actions that they will start doing to address the feedback.
• Make a plan to check in on progress after the discussion.
• Share it privately and not in front of other people.

Having these type of feedback conversations is not easy for either person. The leader has a responsibility to ensure that the feedback is happening consistently, so the person has the opportunity to course correct and get back on track. Although it may be difficult to hear, the receiver will appreciate that you were transparent. It will help them see the impact that they were having on others or on how they are being perceived.

Listening and Setting the Example for Receiving Feedback

As leaders, it is important to set a good example for your team on how to receive feedback. Have you had someone give you difficult feedback? Receiving that type of message is hard and you may feel defensive. If you can, remember that this is just information that you are receiving, and you don’t have to respond right away. Just say thank you for the feedback. Take the time to walk away, think about it and decide if what you heard is true for you. This feedback is a clue to the perception that others at work have of you and it may be accurate, or it may not be. It could be a blind spot that you were unaware of and it may be worth looking at it to see if you need to address it.

Feedback doesn’t only occur in a work setting. People in your life will always give you feedback whether you have asked for it or not. Family and close friends are especially good at telling you what they think you should do. How do you respond to their feedback? Do you take the feedback without saying anything? Do you react emotionally and say whatever comes to mind? Is the feedback they are giving you about them, but they are projecting it onto you? You may find that it is easier to push back when you have known the person for years and they aren’t your boss.

Although the feedback may be difficult to hear, there could be something to pay attention to as you take it in. Would making a change be good for you? If you make this change, will it give you energy or take it away from you? Will it help you stand out or force you to conform and be like everyone else? The bottom line is that you get to decide what you want to do with it. If you feel that a change is warranted, then you can create actions to address it. If you believe that what you are doing is okay, then you get to make the decision to keep doing it. The choice is all yours to make. Bottom line, the more you practice receiving and responding to feedback you receive from others, the better example and leader you will be for your team.

Learning to be a great leader for your team can be very rewarding for you and others. Through guiding, inspiring, and coaching, instead of “doing”, you will become the leader your team needs and loves to follow.

Susan M Barber, President of Susan M Barber Coaching & Consulting, LLC, works with individuals, teams and organizations to build skills that leaders need to attain breakthrough results. Her passion for coaching and leadership development is driven by seeing the transformation of leaders as they reach far beyond their own ideas of success. She continues to drive custom programs for groups that want to make changes in their careers to become more powerful leaders.