The Act of Leadership

Chapter 9LESS IS MORE Create space so your team can step up

This chapter in a nutshell

• you'll learn why a leader who does less, says less and knows less is just what your team needs sometimes
• you'll be encouraged to be more like a coach in your interactions with your team
• you'll learn how to stop doing everyone else's job for them

Remember Pierre from chapter 5? He was the marketing director at a large, publicly listed company with whom I was having the conversation that led me to see a huge hole in the way most organisations go about 360 feedback.

Let's hit rewind and revisit my conversation with him.

The penny drops for Pierre

[FLASHBACK ]

‘So what do you think?’ I asked.

Pierre sat back in his chair, and tossed the paper onto the table and said, ‘Yep, that's about right’.

‘Really? What specifically is right about it?’

‘I need to delegate better,’ he said, ‘That's something I've heard a lot of before.’

‘So why are we still hearing it mate?’

[PREVIOUSLY UNSEEN FOOTAGE]

Pierre:   ‘Je ne sais pas. I guess I've just got to learn to let go of stuff.’

Me:  ‘What do you mean? What are you holding on to?’

Pierre:  ‘Pretty much everything!’

Me:  ‘Why?’

Pierre:  ‘I like to be in control, and besides I'm not entirely sure my team can do what I need them to do, to my standards.’

Me:  ‘Why can't you be sure?’

Pierre:  ‘I've never seen them do it.’

Me:  ‘And why's that?’

Pierre:  ‘Because I don't let them!’

Me:  ‘So, what would your day look like if you knew that your ...