EP94: Three Top Responsibilities of Leading People
ONE, TWO, THREE
Leading people doesn’t need to be complicated.
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(The notes below are only a brief summary of what is discussed in the podcast. Be sure to listen to get all of the goodness! If you would like a full transcription of the episode, please send an email request to: angie@angie-robinson.com. We’d be happy to provide that!)
Recently, I was at leadership conference hosted by TCSHRM (Twin Cities Society for Human Resource Management). It was a room full of HR professionals – I was tapping back into my ‘old’ world of corporate HR!
The morning keynote speaker Jeff Barnes, also known as Dr. Disney. Jeff Barnes is the author of a couple of book: “The Wisdom of Walt” and “Beyond the Wisdom of Walt”. These books are about leadership and life lessons based on the life of Walt Disney and Disneyland.
His keynote presentation was called Leadership Lessons from the Happiest Place on Earth. He made some connections between leadership and showing up as a leader to Walt Disney himself as well as Disneyland. There were a lot of takeaways – one of which I’m sharing here.
Of course, there are more than three things that you as a leader are responsible for when it comes to leading people. But for this purpose – I’m basically generalizing those responsibilities into three different “buckets”.
1) Hire Well
2) Train Well
3) Let It Go
I wanted to expand on these three areas from my own lens, as well as share some of what Jeff Barnes spoke about.
Hire Well
Jeff Barnes said to not hire for skills, rather hire for character. I agree with that to a point because there are certain roles that we really have to hire for skills. There might be some real technical knowledge, certifications or the like where we really do need to bring somebody on that has those skills.
But the point is, don't hire only for skills. Hire also for potential, for the character of the person and really for the possibilities of what this person can bring to the organization and to the team. Also look at how this opportunity can fit into their own goals and development.
My message here is that it doesn't have to be one or the other. Hire for the whole thing…the essential skills you need and for the person’s character and potential. We want to hire well from the standpoint of somebody that is going to bring value to the organization, but also that the organization is going to bring value to the person.
I do want to warn against hiring for a “culture fit”. I'm hoping that vernacular is starting to leave the hiring process a little bit or at least being thought about differently. I really don't love phrase unless we're really clear on what that means.
Because oftentimes when we say “fit”, it tends to mean (even subconsciously) people who are similar to you, people who have similar backgrounds, maybe went to the same school or who might think and act in similar ways…someone you'd like to go have a beer with. And this can be a problem. This can undermine the organization's diversity. It can really exclude people based on their backgrounds and that can lead to all kinds of problems, discrimination being one. A workforce that doesn't welcome different perspectives or types of people could really be missing out on some amazing personalities, skill sets and potential. If you think about “culture fit”, get really clear on what you're meaning by that.
In the presentation, Jeff Barnes also talked about the fact that we should hire people that are better than us when we “hire well”. He gave some examples about how Walt did that. It wasn't Walt who did the animation (outside of the early career times) or the design of the ride vehicles at Disneyland. He hired people who were smarter than him in those areas. Sometimes that can feel very threatening, but I think it's a really smart thing to do in order for us to create results and to elevate our business
Train Well
When we bring people on, we need to give them what they need to know. We need to tell them the important technical things, the important process things, what the expectations are and be very clear and very specific.
We also need to leave room for their own ideas, for their own style, for their own innovations, for their own mistakes. Make sure that they have the support, tools and knowledge they need – and then let them go.
In the words of Jeff Barnes, see where they can take you.
Let It Go
Of course, there are expectations, policies and goals that we set. Those are the guardrails. There might be some course correcting throughout. - that is part of our job. The constant feedback, level setting and alignment still has to happen.
But nobody wants to work for a micromanager.
When there is micromanagement, people won't do things without your approval and won't share their own opinion. When you micromanage, you instill a kind of fear. This might give the leader a sense of power, but that's not really going to be helpful for anyone.
Eventually, that's going to wear on you as the leader. You will eventually get frustrated because you take on much of the work. But it's because of the environment that you created.
Let the people do the work that you brought them on to do.
I love how Jeff Barnes talked about this. He said “you are a leader when people follow you, and people are not going to follow you for your awesome ability to micromanage and control. That is not why people want to follow. You attract the people, make sure that they're set up for success, cast that vision, and lead them to places that they've never imagined.
That is why they follow. And that is exactly what Walt Disney did as well.
This is why self-awareness is so important. Because when you could really understand your own preferences, your own leadership style, what you can leverage, what gets in the way, and how to best connect with people based on their styles - it's going to make the hire well, train well, and let it go so much easier. It's amazing!
What do you think?
How are you doing in these three areas?
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