As a leader, I feel honoured and privileged to be trusted to lead a team of humans. This is a complete career change for most who transition into a manager/people leadership role as your domain knowledge skills become secondary.
I also truly believe in Servant Leadership or my preferred term -“People First Leadership”. It’s clear from perusing the wonders of LinkedIn and other areas of the internet, that this form of leadership still doesn’t have the respect and support it deserves. In some circles, it is seen as weak leadership or ineffective because you need “to have control”.
Looking at leadership holistically means there is much more to it than just saying to your team “I’m here to help you”. But this is definitely a start. Stop telling them exactly what they need to do and instead start guiding, coaching and empowering and watch the work get done in a much more effective way.
I love this quote from Nelson Mandela which really sums up my belief around how best to lead a team:
A leader… is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.
Nelson Mandela
I firmly believe that to do the best I can for my team, I don’t need to have all the answers, but I do need to be able to create the environment that enables us to collaborate together to get to the answer which we can all stand behind.
It still means you will still need to be decisive, you will still need to direct traffic and oversee the coordination of tasks, but for me, if you set your people up for success first, the rest all falls into place.
What Does People First Leadership Mean?
It comes back to some of my previous articles, supporting your team means being what each individual member of your team needs you to be FOR THEM. This might sounds like a lot of work, especially if you have a lot of reports, but taking a cookie cutter approach or a minimalist approach, will mean the team will either bypass you and make decisions without you or leave it all to you.
Your role is to help ensure you can evangelise for them, protect them, develop them and empower them. If you can make these happen for every one of your team, then you can build a team of leaders who will proactively drive the work forward and continue growing. This will also enable you to grow as you learn how to lead the people in your team.
You can learn to coach and mentor, you can start to think strategically and inspire your team. Human beings tend to be motivated by things that inspire them, so being able to find ways to get the creative juices flowing for all, will keep them wanting to work with you.
Take time to actively listen to them, challenge yourself to switch off all distractions and focus purely on the person speaking to you. Take time to challenge them, give feedback in real-time and ensure they prioritise themselves, their families and their life outside of work too. Don’t become that taskmaster that shows no empathy for them as a person, but sees them as a machine just churning out deliverables for you.
Self Awareness is Key
It’s crucial to take a step back every so often and think about your actions, and whether you are considering your team in the right way. Did you say something that could’ve offended? Did you cut people off when talking to them? Did you make a decision that went against the teams direction or ethos and could you justify why you did it?
Take a step back and think “how would I have reacted if someone had said/done that to me?”, sometimes this will be fine, other times it will surprise you and make you want to find a way to reconcile or change what has been said/done. You won’t get it right all of the time, but being aware of it will make you think twice.
Total Authenticity is Needed
The phrase “Be Yourself” is everywhere and is again easily dismissed with “I can’t be myself at work, it wouldn’t be accepted” or something similar, if this is the case, then it sounds like there may be a bigger issue to resolve.
Being your authentic self should be a bare minimum and plays into the PFL style as it enables you to show vulnerability, and create that safe environment for your team to be authentic too.
I love this quote from Brene Brown:
Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.
Brene Brown
Being a People First Leader starts with you being a human first and seeing your team for the human beings they are too. If you can do that, it can be the first step towards having them fight for you as much as you fight for them.
Simon Prior 