Episode #305: Value Led Leadership

When we think of the value of the leader, we are drawn to things like insight, vision, experience, technical knowledge, expertise. The Yogi Berra quote on leadership however points to a fatal truism in being in charge of others, “Leading is easy. Getting people to follow you is the hard part”. Being individually talented and polished in the production of outcomes isn’t enough. Our personal skill level as a doer is no automatic qualification for leading.

The real value proposition of the leader is in how they make their team members feel valued. Here is where we locate the real value equation in leadership. Getting everyone behind the leader’s vision requires that they be engaged. Think about your own case and various places you have worked and bosses you have worked for. If you were not engaged, then you didn’t care about direction, vision, innovation etc. Unengaged staff simply turn up to get paid, but don’t do much beyond that. Now imagine your crew up against the opposition, who are at peak commitment levels. You don’t have to be gifted or a genius to determine who is going to win in the market.

We might get smatterings of commitment and engagement across the team, but is it in sufficiently concentrated form enough, to bolster the difference between winning and losing? If our rival’s whole team is firing and we are only partially engaged, then the customer will feel it. The competitor’s service levels will show it, their follow up will live it and the gap between us and them will be palpable and painful.

Great Greg. How do we get people engaged then? There is a trigger we must make sure is being pulled. That take off point to engagement comes from the degree to which the individual team members feel they are valued by the company.

“Of course they are valued”, you might be saying. Good, but are you telling them that? Are you communicating that? Busy leaders get sucked into the vortex of shooting out orders like a rocket barrage. We are so time efficient, we can get orders flying out to the troops in the quickest time possible so that we can concentrate on ploughing through the work. Today, we short form everything. We reduce the amount of communication to a minimum, we go very, very zen.

Actually we want to go barouche. We want to be much more florid in our recognition of our people. We want to tell them what they are doing that we value. We need to be super specific and zero in on key things they do, which add value to the enterprise. We tell them how these activities make a difference in the company. And we make sure to encourage them to keep doing these important things. We assure them they are not just a tiny cog in the company’s wheel. We explain they are a powerful engine, driving the business through their contribution. Now this cannot become simple flattery. It has to reflect the actual work they are producing and relate the value of that, back to the vision of the business.

The key though is that we have keenly observed what they are doing. We tie their contribution into the vision of the firm and the results we all seek. We must draw out their role in the achievement of outcomes. We always end by encouraging them to keep doing such good work.

The communication piece here is vital. We have to firstly find the time though. This sounds easy except being time poor, and inclined to “zen everything”, we don’t allocate the time needed for them. By making the time to observe, to capture, to communicate what we have seen is what it takes. However, often we miss that chance, because we have our head down and we are busy with our own work. Inspiring the team, getting them engaged is also our work and sadly, sometimes we simply forget that bit.

Telling staff once only that they are valued is absolutely not enough. It requires regular effort, reflection and articulation. It means praising them on the way through to reach the target, not just once they get there. We need to encourage them to get there, to keep trying, no matter how hard the going may prove to be.

So value led leadership isn’t about relying solely on our personal attributes. It hinges on our capacity to draw out and recognise the value that team members bring to their work. It has to be timely and we have to express it in a way that is motivating, credible and long lasting.