Leading is not an easy job. As a matter of fact, the better your intentions, the harder it is to lead. In corporate America, the bottom line typically drives decision-making. Unfortunately, the bottom line does not consider the employees, their health and well-being, their personal lives, or the fact that they have them. The bottom line enforces the financial decisions of the company which then causes the organization to work backwards into making decisions regarding people and other business priorities. As a result, leaders are often forced to choose between: 1) saying no (or not now) to a deadline, or asking an employee to work additional hours, 2) stepping in to finish a project or trusting that the employee will meet the deadline as promised, or even 3) sacrificing your own personal time to help prepare one of your employees for their next role in the company. So how do you meet the demands of the organization while maintaining a healthy working environment with your team – one that is built on respect, trust, and ultimately, preparing them for the next level in their careers? It will not be easy, but this is what I did.
I learned to tell the company “No”. This is not easy and causes you to put yourself “on the cross” for the needs of your team. You know what level of bandwidth exists for your team. You know what projects your team currently has. Upper management only sees the fact that you have a team and your ability to meet targets, so they will continue to add to your workload and enforce strict deadlines. It is up to you as the leader to understand the limits of your team and then not consistently work the team over that limit. For example, if there is an employee who always raises their hand to accept an additional assignment or new a challenge, do not continuously rely on that employee to be your saving grace to get things done. It can allow the employee to have a sense of entitlement or create a level of burnout that causes you to only get the bare minimum. Instead, let others know that you have x number of priorities, and you can complete their request as of x date. Or ask if this request takes priority over a current request and reprioritize.
I made sure my team knew that they had my trust and understood how that impacted our working relationship. Trust does not come easy for me. Especially with the Stranger Dangers in the workplace, and not knowing if an employee is showing up as their true selves or sending their representative to work each day. You know, the person they want you to believe they are, only to have an alter ego come out as soon as they walk away. You start off showing you trust your team by giving small projects, providing a deadline, and then requiring communication on status throughout the process to ensure they stay on target. Over time, you build trust in the employee’s level to do what they say they will do. Then, you can have less frequent status checks and delegate higher-priority tasks to the team. Also, let the employees know that you trust them and have faith in their ability to meet the predefined goal. Employees do not want to lose your trust and will work to ensure they keep it.
I was the example of who I needed my team to be. It is a lot easier to set your expectations when you are the example. I actually learned this from my team. When I was making the mistake of working excessive hours and sacrificing my personal time for the needs of the business. I realized my team started to do the same. It was in seeing their habits that I realized I needed to change my own. To undo this, I had to communicate that I am not always available for the needs of the business. I gave my full focus and 110 percent to the current needs of the business during my established business hours. However, I had to stop taking working vacations or ending my day with “Call me if you need anything while I am gone”. I worked in accounting. We were not saving lives. Whatever it is can wait until I get back from lunch or until tomorrow morning. Making these changes, and even encouraging the team to do so, created a well-balanced team. As a result, when the big projects and high-priority, last-minute requests did come, we were able to manage them better and temporarily adjust our schedules as this was not the norm.
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