In my recent post on 5 Reasons Why Simple Leadership Rocks, a reader called me out in the comment section. And, to be honest, I deserved to be called out.
While my post explained why leading simply rocked, I forgot to explain and show how you can lead simply. Thanks to Caleb, you’ll get that in this post.
Image via Creative Commons
Leaders have been taught again and again that leadership is difficult. Your processes should be understood only by you and only you should be in control.
This has made leadership much more difficult than it should be. Instead, you should be leading simply.
What Is Simple Leadership?
Now, I don’t want to get overcomplicated in this post. It is, after all, about leading simply and effectively. There shouldn’t be much confusion to this after the post is done.
My personal opinion is our leadership should be simple. We need to get rid of the complicated processes and the red tape we put up as barriers between us and our team. It’s creating walls and not relationships.
Instead, we need to break down the processes. We need to make the processes easy enough that a 3 year old or our mothers could understand them. We’ve got to get away from long lists and wordy manuals. The more complicated the processes, the more chance there is for mistakes. Break the habit of difficult processes now!
Simple leadership also calls for Clear Communication. For most of us, we don’t need to use large and confusing words. When we do, it’s often to show off our knowledge and to make the other people around us feel small. Look for ways to clearly explain the mission, vision, and end goal of your organization. Don’t leave room for confusion.
You must be willing to create goals and objectives that are easy to understand. Creating goals and objectives that read like they came from an MBA or English major sounds like a wise decision. But it can kill the enthusiasm of your team when they can’t understand or relate to the goals of the company. Skip the fancy wording and give it to the team plainly. They’ll thank you for it.
Hand over tasks to competent team members. You’re only one person. Don’t hold onto every task that comes your way. Know your strength areas and your weaknesses. And be willing to hand over the tasks to those you know can perform better than you in those areas. Stop trying to be Superman and instead simplify your leadership by delegating the tasks you struggle with to those who shine in that area.
When we learn that leadership doesn’t have to be complicated, our companies can begin to shine. The load is lifted off of team members and the leaders. You’ve just got to be willing to get rid of the extra baggage you’ve been carrying. Are you willing?
Question: How do you create simple leadership within your company? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.