As you might remember from my last article (Math Formula for People Leadership – Serap Özçalıcı (serapozcalici.com), I have come up with mathematical formula for engaging leadership. In my next articles, I would like to double click on all the parameters why and how I decided to add them into formula and why I have chosen that specific mode of operations.
Leadership=
[Purpose *Communication + Care*Empathy + Assignment + Development *(Empowerment+ Trust + Enablement) *Recognition – Destructive Criticism]
(Micromanagement * Exclusiveness + Unfairness + Dishonesty)
- PURPOSE: Helping people to find their purpose and why they are doing that job & If The purpose is not aligned with employees’ drivers, helping them to find how they can connect with it or find the right job that they could feel connected with.
While running all different directions in life, people tend to forget why they are doing what they are doing as a job. Or I have seen some people who never thought about this but just doing their job just because “life brought them here”. Some are quite disengaged and disconnected, some see their job as just earning the bread, nothing more.
In some of my articles, I have shared this thought: for many of us, most of our time is spent at work, so it is vital to be engaged in our job to enjoy our life. I think it is not logical to spend most of our lives in something that is not meaningful to us.
So I have started the formula with “Purpose”. A great leader is supposed to help their people to find the purpose and how they contribute to it and link them to the bigger picture.
Sometimes people end up in divisions or positions that do not fit their natural preferences or drivers. It is important to coach and guide them to do something that they truly aspire.
For more please (How to Find Meaning in Work (with A Quick Questionnaire to Help Us Find Out)? – Serap Özçalıcı (serapozcalici.com)
- COMMUNICATION: Great leaders should be exceptional communicators, inspire people about the vision and mission in simple and enthusiastic way in order to bring hearts and minds of people into the journey.
Great leaders constantly inform their people about the company, where they are going and cascade the critical messages to their teams. Also they help to connect the purpose of the division into the company’s mission. It creates a good understanding about how everyone’s contribution matters and how everything links to each other.
This does not only create enthusiasm towards the mission, but also resonate to some of the decisions that was made by the executive management. In addition this helps people to develop by learning to look at their tasks & division from a grand scheme.
This eventually helps to enable the team to collaborate productively with other divisions in the organization by supporting the understanding of overall company’s success is dependent on each other.
- CARE & EMPATHY: Empathy is referred to one of the most important skills for great leadership because we need a deeper understanding to create the conditions for engagement, happiness and performance. Only showing empathy is not enough, great leaders should also show they “care”.
A good leader has an empathy to understand their team and should care about their wellbeing. This sometimes includes caring about people’s personal lives. Do they have a parent or child sick, do they have a funeral, are they feeling down for some reason? Or do they have too much workload, not enough time for their families? They need to sense everything that might impact the people, not only performance, but their wellbeing. This requires high empathy and good observation skills.
I had very good leaders who understand when I needed to rest, when I am sick or unable to work. It made a difference for me when they empathized with me. I felt that they cared about me, and I mattered to them. I always wanted to go extra mile for these good leaders.
- ASSIGNMENT: It is very critical to assign the right tasks to right people in the team. In addition, it is critical to ensure setting right goals and priorities that will support the business. Good organizational structure that helps the team to collaborate better and share the tasks in a fair way is also a part of assignment.
Good leaders know about each team member’s strengths and weaknesses and what they can bring to the team. The leader also need to know what each team member’s situation requires. Good leaders lead their team situationally, know who needs development and learning, who needs coaching and support, who can be totally empowered. This includes assigning according to each individual’s passion and aspirations.
There is a need to understand the workload on each person and delegate tasks according to the workload.
Structure of the team is also very critical to ensure all of the above. Good leaders look at their organization and change the structure according to the needs of the business, individual needs and aspirations so the team can support each other, work together collaboratively and become a high performing team.
- D – DEVELOPMENT: Help them to develop themselves
According to many consolidated research outcomes, the major reason for employees looking to leave their present Employer is “lack of career growth and development usually blocked by a bad manager”*.
I think it starts with good feedback and helping people to understand their strengths and development opportunities. In my experience, this is usually where most leaders fail, not being able to observe the performance and potential, not being able to be open and honest about it, or not being good at articulating it properly. After good feedback, the leader needs to help people to develop. They need to help with a good development plan which they can use the best mix of development remedies to build critical skills 70% jobs tasks, experiences; 20% bosses’ coaches, mentors; 10% self-development & courses*.
It is also important to let them in on their next career journey and not blocking them where they are and helping them to thrive in their next steps.
In addition, the leader should have a growth mindset themself and continuously develop as a leader.
- E- EMPOWERMENT: Let them flourish and thrive and realize their own potential.
One of my colleagues was very happy with her leader. She has mentioned that throughout 18 years of experience in her career, she has not found such a great leader. I was curious about what quality made this leader such an outstanding leader in the eyes of such a great talent, so I asked. She said. “He gives me space, he empowers me, he knows my abilities and does not step in if it is not really needed so I can act autonomously. He helps me shine and utilize my potential.”. She likes him so much that she sometimes mentions him as the primary reason to stay in the company.
That tells a lot about empowerment and the autonomy, development, unleashing the full potential… These are only possible with proper empowerment.
Due to Situational Leadership Model, we should delegate people when they are ready. So a leader should understand when people need support and if it is not absolutely necessary we should not step in. I am not adding this factor to the formula as “empowerment”, “not delegation”. I mean, after the people are enabled, they should be allowed to act on their own behalf*.
- TRUST
I was not a very experienced food engineer when my manager asked me whether I can build a microbiological laboratory… When he asked me, I considered my education and abilities and I said “yes” to this adventure. Next thing I remember is buying a container as a laboratory to the garden of our head quarter at a late night, exactly on April 1st– fool’s day :). It became a good success story as we had the first and only microbiological laboratory in the sector and it enabled us to do many tests to ensure quality and share with our customers. Then we continuously improved it and got it internationally accredited with my team that I am proud of.
He trusted me when I said yes to this adventure, and it has been one of the most important stories of my life. He did not interfere or step in, he just asked about the outcomes, and we took our responsibility to live up to his trust.
Trust is just magical, it is also about empowerment too, but more than that. I feel that when I build a trusting relationship with my manager, I overachieve and over deliver.
- ENABLEMENT: Removing barriers & support people to overcome barriers that they come across.
You might think that “oh this is very basic leadership even a managerial requirement”. And you are right. On the other hand, I have seen many leaders failing in that. We all want to achieve and do a good job. Sometimes it requires system, resources, data, buy in, mandate, etc. Whatever it is, leader should not forget to support with those needs. Otherwise, we set up people for failures and even most talented people cannot succeed in impossible situations if this is the case.
Especially it is becoming more important as the organizations are working with less and less resources every day. A good leader should particularly have the influence to get necessary resources to set her team to success.
- RECOGNITION: Don’t miss any opportunity to recognize for people going the extra mile
Help them to recognize that their contributions are important and link their results to the purpose. Everyone wants to know whether they are doing a good job. It creates such a positive vibe. I think a good leader should leverage from every opportunity to recognize their people.
Recognition comes in many ways, intangible and tangible, all has different impacts. I would like to share a reminder from one of my articles toughing upon this Why & How of Appreciation – Serap Özçalıcı (serapozcalici.com)
