I just saw a quote that made quite an impression on me lately:
“If you are too big to follow then you are too small to lead. – Every leader must learn to follow in some areas to build a team.”
In my past work experience, I hate to admit it, but I always saw myself above the duties and responsibilities of my team. I never really took the time to fully understand their job, their worklfows, and processes. I usually just focused on coming in, finding out what the goals are, what’s the current performance, and close the gap if any… TOTALLY WRONG!!!
When I became a frontline manager, I knew the workflows inside and out, and I brought this with me as I scaled the corporate ladder of that account. It was easy to relate to my team members, my relationship with my entire team (even my -2′s by the time I left) was great! I knew their challenges, I had a better appreciation of their complaints.
After that, I moved to a different company (which is the one prior to where I work now). I made no effort at all to learn (well, of course, except through the man datory classroom on boarding training) what the team I would soon handle REALLY did. I never even tried to do what they were doing at all. Compared to my first leadership experience, where I could sit side by side with my team and tell them: “ok, I’m rolling up my sleeves, let’s do this together”.
A friend once told me that it didn’t really matter, that I’m not expected to know that much about what the frontlines did, just a general overview. I now see that he totally got it wrong. That was the “conductor’s” leadership, what worked well for me was the “band lead ” type. So instead of waving my baton and telling the team what to do, I should’ve been right there in the thick of things, performing with them.
This is a very late realization, which I learned the hard way. The lack of willingness to be immersed has gravely affected my relationship with my team. It has also affected my ability to speak intelligently about change, about accomplishments, performance gaps, etc… Most of all, this has isolated me from the team. They say that it’s always lonely at the top, I say it doesn’t have to be. All you need to do is bring everyone else there by being with them the whole time.
The mess I got myself into is now irreparable. I can no longer immerse myself for a number of reasons: 1.) I’m too lazy at this point to do so; 2.) I’m too busy now with a lot of other stuff which prohibits me from dedicating time to learning; 3.) I’m now seen as the dumb guy who can’t answer a question to save his life.
A difficult leason, but it was learned nonetheless. To all future leaders, it is not too late for you, get in there, get in the thick of things. Before you even do that, create a clear picture of where you want to be, so that you know exactly what you should get yourself into. Do not make the same mistake I made, be the leader of the band, not the conductor of the orchestra.
