Achieved Strategies

I share this weekly Sunday ritual, Leadership Act, with the intent to help you frame your leadership intentions for the coming week.

I am challenging you to think about how you want to lead each week.  And this week, I’m challenging you to think about control.

Leadership act for the week of April 24, 2011

The need to control circumstances, people, and situations can easily cross the line.  The line crossed can lead to dysfunctional behaviors and diminish your leadership effectiveness and your team’s output.

A Few Outcomes of Over-Controlling Leadership

Reinforced incestuous-thinking

An over controlling leader stifles original thinking.  By original thinking I refer to the willingness of your team to share ideas that differ from your perspective. What’s cut out? Ideas that can challenge your view and your teams. That breakthrough strategy no one saw coming or considered. A surprise insight from a team member. Collaboration across functional lines.

Neatly edited story line

How much of your leadership story is well manicured? Does the story arc tie in neatly with what you’ve planned? What about the players?  There’s nothing wrong with having goals and achieving them. Yet, the arc in your leadership journey ought to have unplanned surprises, heartache, unfamiliar joy, at minimum.

If you carefully control your direction, you are cutting out people and situations that can reveal new possibilities. You are creating a bland reality that will leave you wanting more, but it’s always just beyond your grasp.

What to Do About Over-Controlling Leadership

Get a coach

Really. You need a coach who is willing to challenge your controlling tendencies and help you rewire your behavior.  Someone who is stronger than you and not afraid to have hard conversations with you when needed.

Get an observer

A coach may not be possible. Confide in a competent colleague or mentor about over-controlling tendencies. Ask him or her to observe you in a setting where the tendencies surface. Prep with him/her before the meeting and debrief after.  Discuss triggers and signs to help you navigate away from the controlling tendencies.  Keep at it.

Envision the interaction

Before going into a meeting, give yourself 10-15 minutes write out what you want to accomplish at the end of the meeting.  Then ask yourself how you need to show up to meet the accomplishment.  What behaviors are necessary from you? How will you invite others to engage in the meeting?

Certainly over-controlling leadership is not something that goes away in a week. It takes constant vigilance. It takes a promise to yourself and a commitment to your team and their growth.

Promise yourself one thing, though: don’t make yourself wrong when you slip into familiar controlling behaviors. If you are consistently showing progress in loosening your grip on how things roll, your team will notice and respond in kind. You may just need to give it time.

So, I’m curious. What have you done to reduce the stronghold of control? Please share below so we can all learn from each other.

Photo by scarzone