My Turf!
In all of the years I have worked in Public Service, whether for the state as a college faculty member, administrator, or in city government, the one thing about leadership that continues to present itself time and time again is the need to protect one’s turf.
Before my tenure as a public servant, I had the gift of being self-employed. While some may see self-employment as a luxury, the truth is that it is hard work and often painful. Resources are scarce, as are employee benefits and health insurance! And if you decide to take a week-long vacation, you had better plan to starve for a week for all of the missed business prospecting. While there are many great benefits of owning your own business, the most important benefit that I have taken into my tenure of public service education is that of employee empowerment.
Empower Your Employees
When you are self-employed, there is no time to do everything yourself. Especially if you have the human resources available to complete work. When I hired someone in my business work, I gave them training and the freedom to be productive. A good employee is a great gift. Too often, however, in the public sector, good employees are seen as dangerous tools that lurk in the shadows to take leader’s jobs and create drama for the manager. Let me challenge you for a moment to re-think this notion. Why do we hire employees? To help us get the work done. Why do we advertise and screen applicants? To get the best pool of talent available. Why do we interview them with a panel of experts? To select the best of the pool we screened. So why don’t we empower them to do their job completely when they start working for us? Do we not trust our processes? Do we not believe they can really perform? It is probably because we don’t know how to lead them.
Lead by Example
Leading a good employee is more about giving some of our power away to the employee to make decisions in the trenches. We share trust with them and train them to understand the culture of our organization then release them to be great. Some have shared with me that they are worried that the employee will gun for their job. To that, I say “Great!” I want my employees to want my job. This gives them the opportunity to grow, work hard, develop and be ready for the next step. Some say their employees will leave if they develop them. To that, I say “Great!” If I develop someone to be ready for the next level they should move up. I tell you this: most employees that receive great mentoring from their supervisors will not leave, but develop a level of loyalty to their organization that is unmatched.
The 5 Year Principle
I work on a premise of the “5 Year Principle.” I want my employees to be thinking about how they work and develop themselves for their next five years. While this sounds ludicrous to most, the truth is that we create a stream of mentoring and development that creates a strong organization. In my organization of nearly 6000 employees, almost 15 people retire or move on every two weeks. With this level of attrition and organizational change, being a control freak is not an option. It is more important to grow great employees in the organization and to fill the knowledge gap that is created when people leave.
Do you have a plan for your next five years? Or do you plan on staying in that seat on the bus and holding shut the door to development? Empower your employees and quit trying to do it all yourself! You have the greatest resources available to an organization…your people! Don’t just give them orders, but allow them to contribute and develop. Be a leader not a control freak!
Tom Darling