The Non-Leader in Each of Us ery few workplace leaders end up in charge because they showed great leadership skills when they had no leadership responsibilities. No, in most cases, they got the nod because the boss could depend on them to get the job done; they were good worker bees. unfortunately, when crowned supervisor, they were not suddenly granted the knowledge of how to create vision, develop strategy, lead employees in group processes, teach and coach others, develop goals and metrics, facilitate meetings, or build strong, self-reliant teams. in fact, it is unlikely they were given much guidance beyond completing paperwork and reporting tasks. considering how employees get thrown into supervisory and management roles for doing good work, it should not surprise us that they lean on what they know when they become leaders. after all, technical know-how and experience is what got them the promotion in the first place. it is only natural that many end up functioning more as lead worker bees than true leaders, and therefore get bogged down in the details of the work instead of promoting teamwork and team performance. but as we all know, having a leadership title is one thing; having the leadership ability to create a team of passionate, committed contributors is another. a general manager i once coached (who we will call liz), was a great example of this. liz ran a site of about 250 production people. an engineer by trade, liz knew every aspect of the operation. no doubt her ability to jump in and tackle tough problems helped her get chosen as the new general YOU NEED TO TRAIN YOUR LEADERS TO LEAD manager. When we first tried to meet, she was hard to track down – she was never in her office and her senior staff hardly saw her. You can probably guess why: she jumped into every production problem she caught wind of. it was natural for her, since that was her experience and the reason for her promotion, but she was not acting like a general manager. she was playing lead problem solver. spending all her time on the production floor meant that liz was neglecting her senior staff and had her hands in everything. i know what you are thinking: her constant interference drove production leaders crazy, and you would be right. in fact, her meddling caused more mistakes and confusion than it solved. of course, additional production problems reinforced her belief that she needed to be more involved in operations. it was a self-perpetuating cycle. unbeknownst to her, when liz became the general manager, her role changed from engineer and chief problem solver to leader. once she understood that, she still was not clear on how to make the shift. to help her become more of a leader, we encouraged her to focus on the social side of the operation – how people worked and interacted with each other – instead of trying to solve technical problems. the plan was for liz to put energy into creating a vision for the organization by enrolling V 28 hbma billing • november.december.2013 By Kevin Herring
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