Here is a principle you must understand for organizational efficiency:

Sometimes the best person for the job may not be the person who (you think) can do the job best.

Let me explain…

High capacity leaders struggle to let go of something they think they can do better. Most have a higher than normal sense of confidence in their abilities (this ego can be used for good or bad), so they believe they can best implement their ideas. Their drive for progress makes them doers by nature, so they often resist the process of delegation, even if they know it is the healthy thing to do for the organization, because they fear it won’t be done right unless they do it.

One key to solving this issue is for the leader to change visions from the specific project or function the leader desires to see completed to attention to the vision and overall success of the organization. Instead of seeing a project for the potential of pass/fail depending on who does it, begin to see the results of the total organization as the appropriate pass/fail scenario. In this approach, delegation becomes a key to moving projects forward, getting the entire team involved, developing new leaders, and completing all the tasks needed to successfully attain the organization’s goals and objectives.

Leader, if you tend to be a control freak, perhaps you don’t need to change your personality, as much as you need to change your vision. Delegating frees the leader to do those things he or she is most passionate about, most gifted to do, or things he or she never completes because there is never enough time to do them. Begin to see that the best person for the job may not be the person (in your most humble opinion…) who can do the job best.

Plus, chances are very good you will soon realize others can do the job equal to or better than you can.

Are you a control freak?  How do you deal with this?

In an organization the unwritten rules are just as, if not more, important than the written rules. If you are considering making changes, implementing something new, adding staff, or any of dozen other decisions in your organization, you need to also consider the unwritten rules of the organization.

Here are a few examples:

The culture of the organization…How it responds to change…How it addresses problems…How it plans for the future…

The leader’s accessibility and temperament…Is he or she considered approachable?  Does he or she participate with the team normally?  Would he or she know if there was a perceived problem in the organization? Do team members trust the leader?

The relationships of team members to each other…Is there a friendship or just a working relationship?  Is conflict acceptable?  Do team members feel freedom to speak freely?

The sense of job satisfaction within the organization…Are there long-term team members?  Are team members generally happy with the organization?  Is there current unrest among team members?

The common and expected practices of the organization…Is there a way it’s always been done? Has change usually been accepted or resisted?

The way information flows…How does communication really happen?  What are the circles of influence?  Who drives discussion?  Who has influence with peers?

As a leader, it’s important that you not only concentrate your attention on what is easily measured, written in a policy manual, or even spoken as a value. Other considerations may be more important, even though they may have never been expressed formally.  When change occurs or is to be implemented in an organization, paying attention to these unwritten rules is necessary for success. BTW leaders, most likely you helped write these unwritten rules.

What are some of the unwritten rules of your organization?

The way a leader handles correction is important if the desire is to keep quality people on the team.  All of us occasionally need someone to help us become better at what we do.  That should be the end goal of correction.  All of us make mistakes.  Avoiding the corrective procedure keeps the organization from being all it can be. Good leaders use correction to improve people and the organization.

Here are 7 aspects of healthy correction:

Relationship
Corrective actions should start here.  It’s hard to correct people effectively if you don’t have a relationship with them.  Using authority without an established relationship may work in a bureaucratic organization, but not in a team environment.  Relationship building should begin before the need for correction.

Respect
Never condemn the person.  As soon as correction becomes more personal than practical, the one being corrected becomes defensive and the leader loses the value of the correction. Focus attention on the actions being corrected and not the person.  (Even if the correction involves a character issue, if you intend to retain the person, you will accomplish more if he or she knows they have your respect.)

Reprimand
Make sure the action being correction is clear and the person knows what they did wrong.  Don’t wait until the problem is too large to restore the person to the team.  Even though protecting the relationship is important, the person doesn’t need to leave still clueless that there is a problem.

Refocus
In addition to telling the person what he or she did wrong, help them learn from their mistakes.   Spend time discussing how the person can improve in the area of performance being corrected.

Restore
Make sure the person being corrected knows you still believe in their abilities and that you have faith they can do the job for which they are responsible.  Correction is never easy to accept, but the goal should be to improve things following the corrective period.  People will lose heart for their work if they do not think their work is still valued.

Reinforce
Correction can be a valuable time for the team member and organization if used appropriately.  It should be a learning time for the leader and the person being corrected.  Use this as a time to remind the team member of the culture, vision, goals and objectives of the organization, as necessary to improve the team member’s performance. The leader should consider how he or she can improve to help the team member improve.

Replace
Some people simply aren’t a fit for the team. The problem could be them or the team.  Making the call to replace a team member is hard, but sometimes necessary to continue the progress of the organization.   The sooner this call is made the better it will be for everyone.  (If it reaches this point, the leader should spend time evaluating what went wrong with the relationship…was it the person, the organization, or the leader?)

Leaders, do you avoid correction?  Are you using it for the good of the organization and the people on your team?

What would you add to my list?

There is a big difference the way you lead someone who wants to be led and how you lead someone who wants to be a leader.

It requires a different approach.

The person who wants to be led desires structure. They want to follow the rules. They need someone to tell them how to do what you want done. He or she needs specifics and details, not ambiguities. They stress more during times of uncertainty.

The person who wants to be a leader needs space to dream, freedom to explore, and permission to experiment. He or she desires less direction and more encouragement. They continually need new challenges. They get bored easily.

There is nothing wrong with either person. Most teams need both types of team members. Know your team.

Do you see the difference? Which are you? What would you add to my descriptions?

Read THIS POST and THIS POST for similar thought processes.

Leading up…It’s a subject I frequently am asked how to do.

I have personally surrounded myself with great young leaders who are 10, 15, even 25 years younger than me. I love the enthusiasm and creative minds of young leaders, so I try to remain open to them leading me at times, but I’m sure some on my team wrestle with the same issue with me at other times. The question I often receive is how to influence those who are supposed to be leading you, especially when many times you feel as though you have better ideas than they may have about an issue. How can you gain influence over the people in leadership positions when they don’t seem be open to or even value your input?

If this is your issue, here are 5 things I believe you should consider when trying to lead up:

Respect – Granted, you may know more than the person leading you about an issue, but chances are he or she has experience you do not have. We all like to be respected for our experience. Keep in mind also that some of those experiences may have been negative and may have prompted the style of leadership he or she provides now. If you have any hope for the leader’s approval, however, you will need to show that you respect the position of authority the person has in the organization.

Kindness – This is a general principle when working with others, but especially true in this situation. If you aren’t likable to the leader, he or she isn’t likely to respond likewise. Have you ever heard, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”? That works when trying to gain the favor of a leader too. Even if the leader is unkind at times, attempt to win him or her over with kindness. “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” (Proverbs 15:1)

Acknowledge – Recognize the leader’s previous and current contribution to the organization, as well as his or her wisdom. Even if you respect a leader, he or she isn’t likely to know or appreciate that respect until you let them know. When a leader feels appreciated for their previous efforts, he or she is less likely to feel threatened and more likely to welcome input.

Ask – Request the leader’s input and help…even if you don’t necessarily need it. It will show you value them. The best leaders gain insight from lots of different sources. Model this for the ones who are leading you. You may not see the relevance of their insight right now, but they may actually surprise you and add something from their experience that you haven’t thought of or been exposed to yet.

Partner – Find areas of common connection. Even if there is a significant age gap or different paradigms of life, there will be things you have in common. That’s part of all networking and team-building. I see many younger leaders who only want to hang out with younger leaders, and vice-versa for the older leaders. This will never bridge the generational gap and isn’t healthy for the organization.

I personally understand the frustration of being part of a team, but not feeling you have the freedom to share your opinions or the opportunity to help shape the future of the organization. Real leaders never last long in that type environment. There are certainly leaders who will never be open to your input. I recommend discovering this early and not wasting much time battling that type insecure leader. (I wrote about that type leader and organization in previous posts HERE, HERE and HERE.) Most leaders, however, if approached in the right way, will begin to see you as more of a helper than a hindrance to their personal success. Try these approaches and see if they help your situation.

Let us learn from your experience in leading up. How have you learned to influence those who are leading you?

Conflict can be healthy for an organization if handled appropriately and effectively.  It may even be necessary to keep an organization healthy.

Recently the staff at Grace Community Church talked through conflict and its benefit for us. Sometimes an organization can become too polite with each other and conflict is avoided or ignored in an effort to protect the relationship or to avoid the tension conflict creates. Other times one person tends to control a situation without allowing other people’s input, either for selfish reasons or to keep conflict from developing.   The problem with these approaches is that some of the best ideas are never implemented because we don’t push through the messiness of conflict to get to the right answers.

If your organization needs to learn to use conflict for good, HERE is an assessment I would recommend to you.  There are times for each of these approaches to conflict. Some issues are not worth the fight and other times the relationship is more important than risking the tension conflict can create, but many times the goal you are attempting to achieve and the relationship of the people on the team are both too important not to push through the conflict to get to the best answer. (Just so you know, in my experience, most people will score as a Collaborator, but as you talk through it, that may or may not be their first response to conflict.)

Just as in family relationships, organizational relationships involve conflict.  Learning to handle them in a healthy way is one key to creating organizations that thrive.

How do you tend to handle/view conflict?

How does your organization/organization’s leader view conflict?

For some tips on handling conflict, see THIS POST.

It’s a classic example. You’ve seen it happen many times. Your ball team is behind in the game. The referee makes what you and the rest of your team’s fans believe is a bad call. It energizes the crowd and the team and helps spur your team on to victory.

That example illustrates a principle of organizational dynamics also:

Sometimes a little change, even a little drama, will motivate a team into action.

If things are becoming dull or routine in your organization, as the leader you may need to stir up some change, even if it seems disruptive at the time. There are times to change just for the sake of creating more energy. This doesn’t mean you change your overall vision and your attempt should be to make a positive change, but if things are stagnating some change may be needed. It would almost be better to have a change that didn’t work than to allow things continue at a standstill.

I fully believe this principle is true. Knowing when to use it is obviously critical, but don’t allow fear of making a mistake keep you from doing the right thing. Ask yourself this question: If nothing changes in your organization, where will the momentum on your team be a year or two from now? If the answer isn’t what you want it to be, it may be time for some change.

Is this a hard principle for you or are you a lover of change?

One of the biggest challenges for any organization is to attract and retain leaders. Yesterday I posted 7 reasons leaders tend to leave an organization.  (Read that post HERE.)  The goal then is to find ways to keep a leader energized to stay with the team, so I thought a companion post was appropriate.  I never want to stop someone from pursuing a better opportunity, but I don’t want to send them away because I didn’t help them stay.

The reality is that leaders get restless if they are forced to sit still for long.  Good managers are comfortable maintaining progress, but a leader needs to be leading change.  I posted before that leaders even thrive in chaos at times.  (Read that post HERE.)

If you sense you have a restless leader on your team, here are a few suggestions to encourage them to stay:

• Give him or her a new challenge…
• Allow him or her to explore a new area of interest to them…
• Let him or her lead a new area….
• Give him or her more creative time to dream…
• Don’t exhibit fear in him or her creating a mess while exploring…
• Take the lid off his or her authority…(give him or her more)…
• Allow him or her to help you lead/dream/plan for the organization…

What other ways can you think of to keep a restless leader longer at an organization?

Steve Keating is an online leadership influencer extraordinaire. His Twitter posts are consistently re-tweeted and his insight is valuable for me and thousands of others who follow him. I decided it was time to get to know the man behind the leadership tweets.

Steve’s bio includes 25 years of sales and sales management experience, including 8 –1/2 years with the Dale Carnegie organization. You can follow Steve’s tweets HERE or connect with him on LinkedIn HERE.

Here are 10 questions with leader Steve Keating:

When you were growing up, is this what you thought you would be doing vocationally? If not, what did you want to do?

When I was growing up I wanted to be a hockey player. That plan was working well until one January day during my second year of college. It turns out, it’s kind of tough to play hockey with only one good knee. ☺ So business was my next choice and I knew early on that as much as I wanted to succeed it would be even more rewarding to help others succeed as well. That has lead me to where I am today.

What’s the most different job you’ve had from what you are doing now and how did that job help you with what you are doing now?

I fixed vending machines during college. It was hard kind of dirty work with a surprising amount of stress. But many of the lessons learned there carry forward to this day, particularly giving people bad news, dealing with unhappy people (nothing like dealing with people who have missed their morning cup of coffee to help you learn how unhappy some people can be) and seeing things from other people’s point of view.

Who is one person, besides Christ, who most helped to shape your leadership and how did they help you?

I have been so blessed to have good Christian men as mentors throughout my life. One of the earliest that stand out was my 7th grade teacher – Cyril Paul. My first close contact with a person of another race was with Mr. Paul, he was my teacher with Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. I saw the pain and anger but I also saw the grace & dignity with which he dealt with it. I learned from him that when things don’t go your way to remember, it’s not all about you. I watched him, in all his hurt, pray for our country & thank God for the work that Dr. King had done. Even at that young age you knew you mattered, you knew he cared. He instilled in all of us real hope for our futures. I learned from Mr. Paul that when you give someone hope, you really give them the opportunity to be everything they can be.

Besides the Bible, what is one book that has most helped to shape your thought process in life and ministry?

This one is easy! It’s “How to Win Friends & Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. Many people don’t realize it but I believe Mr. Carnegie drew many of the principles of his book straight from scripture. The book is well known as a “self-help” book but it’s really about helping yourself by helping others.

What are three words other people would use to describe your work style/ethic?

Caring – I hope this comes through. I truly try (I fail too often) to live for Christ. If the “caring” doesn’t show I have really missed the mark.

Perfectionist – I’m not sure I like this one but I know many people (including my wife) would describe me this way. I say I’m not sure I like this one because it can be a twined edged sword. Sometimes trying for perfection leads to frustration and frustration is a very short step from anger.

Diligent – The greatest compliment anyone could pay is would be to say my word is as good as gold. When I say I would do something I stick to it until it is done. I hate to disappoint people.

What is your greatest strength in leadership?

I would say my greatest strength is that I get more excited helping others succeed than I do succeeding myself. I don’t suppose I’ve always felt that way but as I grow older I feel more of a calling to give myself to others so that they might have some of the success that has been given to me.

What is your greatest weakness in leadership?

You might have noticed from my tweets that I love to give advice ☺ But my greatest weakness also comes from giving that advice. My weakness is frustration, I get frustrated when people ask for advice, when I carefully, thoughtfully coach, and then people do something almost totally opposite from my recommendation. The good news is that I forget the experience pretty quickly and become willing to help again as soon as I’m asked.

What is the hardest thing you have to do in leadership?

The hardest thing for me is telling someone they are wrong. I try to “paint them a picture” or share a story that illustrates where they might be wrong but sometimes you just have to say it, you’re wrong. I try to do it in a caring manner and to make the fault seem easy to correct. I try to do it in a way that reduces the chance of an argument but however I do it, it’s still never a pleasant experience for anyone.

What is one misconception about your position you think people in your church may have?

Interesting question! We were at a church for 15 years and left that church last August. We were accepted into membership at our new church home, John Piper’s church, Bethlehem Baptist, just yesterday. We were a key part of the leadership team at our former church and began to notice disturbing changes over our last 18 months there. “Seekers” became “customers” and the only way to honor God was by raising large amounts of money. It became man’s church and not God’s church. As these things started to happen many of the member’s come to me and asked me to “fix” them. I think the assumption was that I simple comment to the Pastor, from me would put things back to normal. In a way that was a great compliment but as it tuned out, my influence was way way over-rated.

If you could give one piece of advice to young leaders from what you’ve learned by experience, what would it be?

My best piece of advice would be to do what you love, whatever it is. From that love will come passion and that passion, when used for good, will often lead to excellence.

Do Steve’s answers trigger any thoughts in your mind about your own leadership?

In a previous post, I wrote the reasons to micromanage. (Yes…there are times…Read that post HERE) Most of the time micromanaging is not a positive characteristic of leadership. Here are some reasons leaders resort to micromanaging:

Fear – When the leader feels that another person may receive credit or recognition greater than the leader; he or she is more likely to try to navigate every outcome.

Insecurity – When the leader is afraid he or she doesn’t have what it takes to lead the team or organization, in order to protect his or her back, the leader begins to control the actions of those on the team.

Wrong team members – When the leader doesn’t feel he or she can trust the team members, he or she is likely to lead activities normally delegated.

Bad vision – The problem may not be the people…or even the leader…but the leader is pushing people to accomplish something that no one buys into or won’t work. Sometimes it’s time to move forward, but the leaders hanging onto a sinking ship.

Control Freak – Some leaders relish in the idea of holding power and so, to keep that sense of control, they use their position’s authority to retain control rather than delegating.

Leaders, are you guilty of micromanaging? Do any of these reasons apply to you?

(If you need help, read my post on 4 easy steps to delegation HERE.)  The important thing for a leader to do, if he or she wants to see the organization flourish, is learn to let go of control and let others lead.  (Read more about that concept HERE.)  If the problem is the organization or people, then work to fix it so you don’t have to micromanage.  If the problem is the leader…well…start developing yourself.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

What experiences do have with a micromanaging leader?