No. This is not an excuse for leaders to put on weight! I didn’t say leaders are “round,” I said they are “around.” Here’s what I mean. We all know that one of the things truly effective leaders need to be able to do is delegate tasks and then empower members of their team to take the ball and run with it. Let’s face it. There is only so much of us to go around and eventually, if we don’t assign some tasks to team members, we will be stretched so thin that we won’t be good at anything we are doing. We must delegate.
But, delegate does not mean disappear. Assigning a task or even a huge event to someone else doesn’t give us the luxury of walking away and saying “that’s what I pay you for.” Great leaders may not be personally handling all of the details, but they remain visible enough so that their team knows that if something arises and the leader is needed, they can count on them. Empowerment of the team is a great thing, but it can’t be used as an excuse to no longer get your hands dirty. You’ve heard me say before that leaders need to work “alongside” their team in the implementation of a project or activity. When leaders stay engaged and involved, team members are more committed, work harder, and are more effective because they know that they are not out there all by themselves.
As a leader, it’s a wonderful thing to know that I can count on my team, and that if I need to be somewhere else, I can trust that they will get the job done. I recently had this happen. I had something come up which took me away from my typical activities and I had no choice but to call on my team leaders to stand in the gap for me. Everything went off without a hitch and I am grateful for the great team I have. However, it worked not only because I have invested in the relationships and the training to help them succeed in circumstances like this, but also because it doesn’t happen very often. Most of the time, even when something is fully delegated to them, I never totally disappear. My team always knows that I will never ask them to do something I’m not willing to help with, and if I am somewhere else, I’m almost always as close as a phone call.
You may have one other member on your team, six, or a hundred. Be grateful for the help. Take care of them and invest in them personally. Train them well, empower them to do the work, and be the encourager. Delegate, but when you do, don’t disappear. You need to be around.
Lead well.