Page 58 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

You Never Have To Rely on Your Technical Brilliance • 39

The higher up you go, the less real stuff you do—it’s all through
people.
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Trust them to make a decision, right or wrong. That’s the only way
to strengthen your whole team.
Always personalize instruction, giving as many orders yourself as
possible, or else you undercut your own leadership. Don’t use third-party
validation, either, such as, “Company policy says that you should. . ..”
Always use, “I want you to. . ..”
Add, “Please complete. . ., approve of. . ., get back to me by [date
and time].”
Assign priorities, and communicate the ranking. Establish inter-
mediary, step-by-step targets to make it easier to attack complex situations.
When you delegate work, hand over the authority too—this is how
you develop others. For example, let subordinates conduct meetings or
have conversations with key constituents without you being present.

I tell them go ahead and jump. I got your back.

If you don’t have understanding and agreement about where you
are, you won’t get agreement as to where you want to go or when you want
to get there. With agreement, you can mobilize what to do. “Here’s how
we’ll get it done.” Now, you tell me, “How will you get it done in your
area?” Repeat the commitment and priorities weekly, monthly, quarterly,
or whenever necessary to create, stabilize, and sustain growth.
Tell your people what you’re going to tell them, and then tell them
what you told them. Set deadlines. Ask them to confirm that they received
all the above. If people don’t have a goal, they don’t know when they’ve
met the goal, so they don’t get to feel good about meeting it.
Hear people out about their reaction to what you told them. They
want to be heard. Imagine other people’s feelings in the situation. Let
them spout off. Be empathetic, but this doesn’t mean that you have to
agree. You just have to let people feel heard. Mostly people want their
positions acknowledged, and mostly they want someone else to make the
delegation decision.