During my downtime (code for still looking for a job) I have continued to do some coaching. A recent conversation got me asking what has happened to common sense leadership? The coaching conversation focused on what this person could do to increase the level of interaction they have with their new leader. A little background is necessary, an existing leader with another business unit was brought in to lead the team. While that in and of itself is nothing new, this person had little to no experience or understanding of the business.
An initial conference call was held to introduce the new leader to the team and during that call my coachee offered to help the new leader get up to speed and enhance their understanding so they could be as effective as possible. The leader did not respond or acknowledge and simply made a “moving on” statement. Thinking it was probably a case of the new leader being overwhelmed, an email was sent reiterating the offer to help. Again, no reply. The first month went by with no communication from the leader. Having some challenges with a customer, the person called the leader and left a message requesting a call back as some guidance was needed. A week goes by and that call was followed up with an email asking for assistance. Crickets. So now this person is thinking they did something wrong and is worried they offended the leader. With limited options they reached out to a teammate who shared the same frustration. Adding bad to worse the leader sent a note to cancel their monthly team conference calls not once but twice citing they were too busy with other priorities. Fed up with the lack of direction, the team members started to hold calls on their own to keep everyone in the loop on the business and support one another. That included making decisions that were above their pay grade.
So where did all this go wrong with a leader who works for a company that boasts a world class leadership development training program? Perhaps this person had other priorities or didn’t feel they needed to attend. Either way, here is some commonsense leadership advice for new or existing leaders taking over a team:
- Send a note to the new team introducing yourself and schedule time for an introductory meeting,
- Hold the meeting as soon as possible and plan enough time for everyone to introduce themselves,
- Share things they may not know about you, let them know your leadership style, your preferred method of communication, how you celebrate successes, how you react to bad news, etc., etc. (this list could go on and on),
- Schedule one to one meetings with each direct report to learn more about them e.g. personal (within the law of course), goals, style, needs, challenges, aspirations, etc.,
- Respond in a timely manner to texts, emails and voicemails (can’t believe I have to say that), and
- Finally, treat your team the way you want them to treat you.