If you are in charge of a team, at any level, you have the authority to make decisions for your team. Everyone expects you to use your authority but if you want to empower or engage your team, your authority can get in the way, especially if you overuse it.
All organizations are hierarchies of authority where the boss is the boss, whose role it is to tell others what to do. How much the boss must be obeyed and not questioned varies by national culture but every boss always has the authority to decide what, how and when work must be done.
Example of the Clash Between Authority and Engagement
A senior executive had an engaging leadership style because he regularly asked team members for their suggestions for possible solutions to problems. When he joined a new organization at a senior level, he met with his new direct reports individually and asked them engaging questions like “What do you see as the major issues here?” “What do you see as possible solutions?” One old-timer asked him: “Do you want me to tell you how to do your job?” This old-timer felt that the new boss should not be asking for suggestions, that he should be calling the shots, if he knew how to do his job properly.
Because we expect our boss to give us direction, asking us for suggestions is often seen as a sign of weakness, rather than as our boss wanting to engage us in deciding what to do.
Engaging leadership fosters shared ownership of plans and decisions by drawing possible solutions out of team members, colleagues or partners. The most engaging question you can ask to get others involved in solving problems is “What do you think? This question has hundreds of variations, such as “What do you think is the main issue here?” “What do you think are some potential solutions?” “What do you think is the best solution and its pros and cons?” There are many more variations on this engaging question.
How to Sell an Engaging Leadership Style
Whenever you try to sell anything, you should show how it’s in the interest of the prospective buyer. It’s unwise to simply start using a more engaging leadership style if you want to prevent people thinking that you don’t have the confidence to call the shots as they expect. You thus need to sell people on your decision to use a more engaging leadership style by pointing out what’s in it for them:
- Asking team members to think engages their brains and develops their confidence
- Participation in developing solutions creates greater motivation, ownership and commitment
- Fostering engagement in problem solving is empowering
- Better decisions can arise through a wider range of input
- If I offer my solutions, I’m feeding you fish. If I ask you what you think, I’m teaching you to fish
- If I do all the thinking, you will overly depend on me and feel less responsibility yourselves
- Being more engaging gets more (thinking) done through others, the essence of your role
- Asking engaging questions is a different leadership style; you can still be directive as needed
- Engagement in decision making can improve team spirit and collaboration
The objective of management is often viewed as “getting the best out of people” which once meant simply being good at delegating. Now, however, people want more say in things. They don’t want to be just robots at the command of directive bosses. Engaging people’s brains gets more out of them than merely delegating tasks. We also want to “help people achieve their full potential.” This means more than offering them challenging tasks and training. How can you help people achieve their full potential if you don’t involve them in solving problems, making decisions and developing plans?
Breaking out of the Authority Trap
If your organization strongly reveres authority, changing such a culture can be a challenge. This problem presents you with a leadership opportunity, one where you can show leadership to your peers by example and by selling them on the benefits of engaging leadership.
Within your own team, position yourself as a catalyst, facilitator and coach, more than the main decision maker. You can’t abdicate your authority but you can encourage your team to see you a bit differently. This means regularly emphasizing your other roles and making sure you celebrate their willingness to offer their ideas. Always thank them for any suggestions. If a suggestion they make is not workable, stay in coaching mode, first saying what you like about the idea, then asking what they would do if x, y, or z problems arise. If they can’t think of a better option, ask them “How do you think ABC option would work?” That is, pose your suggestion in the form of a question to show that you value their opinions.
Facilitator versus Solution Generator
When you ask engaging questions to draw suggestions out of your team, you are operating as a facilitator. This is a leadership approach because you are getting mental work done through others. Being a solution generator means that you ask only analytical questions to better understand the problem so you can solve it yourself. Acting as a solution generator makes you more of an individual contributor than a leader, albeit one with authority over people. Many leaders are only half engaging. They propose their own solutions to their team and only then ask what they think. Unless someone has a very strong reason to oppose that decision, they will acquiesce in the boss’s suggestion. This is not good enough.
Problems with Solution Generators in Authority
If you solve all the problems and make all the key decisions, you are effectively discounting the talent and brain power of your team. Here are some of the negative outcomes you may be creating:
- Disempowering others, fostering dependency on you
- Failing to develop the thinking and decision-making confidence of your team
- Taking all ownership on your own shoulders; withholding ownership from team members
- Having to monitor work progress more closely because team members are less committed
- You may sometimes not make the best decisions; you can’t know everything
- You risk losing credibility by making even a few bad decisions (“If you’re so smart that you can decide everything, we’re going to ridicule you if you make one bad decision!”
- Carrying so much psychological responsibility increases your anxiety and stress levels
It takes work to change the culture of your team but it can be done by continually emphasising your role as facilitator, catalyst and coach along with the benefits of this leadership style. You may also need to persist in asking team members for their ideas as they may lack the confidence initially to stick their necks out in a meeting. You may need to start working with them in this way on an individual basis before trying to draw them out in team meetings.