Lead by letting people off the lead

Over hundreds of years, we’ve controlled and conditioned wild animals to the point where we can live with them under the same roof. But unfortunately, we’ve also taken the same approach to managing our staff, relying on procedures in order to get a predictable response. We have set rules, boundaries, and limitations that discourage any freedom to think and act.

Of course, procedures are useful for compliance and efficiency, but they should remain the servants of our strategies and cultures, not become our masters. In other words, we shouldn’t domesticate our staff.

If we can lead by letting people off the lead, our reward will be to become the proud owners of people who are more of a handful to manage. They will have higher expectations of us, and the company. We will be bombarded with more ideas than we have the current budget to spend. We will set them loose and ask them to run faster and climb higher. And as a result, we will find that we ourselves have to run faster and climb higher just to keep up with them (perhaps that’s why ‘leading from behind’ was invented…).

But for those who are up for such a challenge, the rewards are there for the taking. And for those who aren’t up for it, the rewards are there to be taken by the competition. They will either take our disgruntled staff, or our customers (who are fed up dealing with our disgruntled staff). Or both.

So the choice is this: give people the freedom to win their future, and accept the leadership challenges of staff with high expectations. Or keep them muzzled, and get bitten in the bum by the competition.