Great Leaders Lead by Teaching

In late December and early January, I did a series of posts on what leaders need to do to help the people they lead to succeed.  These tips were related to one of the points I make in my book 4 Secrets of High Performing Organizations: create a committed and engaged workforce.

Developing and communicating a clarity of purpose and direction is another of the 4 Secrets.  Organizational values are helpful in communicating clarity of purpose.  Values guide decision making.  They help people figure out what to do in ambiguous situations.

In this post, I will concentrate on one of the things great leaders do to use values to communicate their organizations clarity of purpose.

Great leaders lead by teaching.

Great leaders are teachers.  They know that they have the primary responsibility for helping the people they lead learn how organizational values should guide daily activities.

Great leaders use questions to teach the people they lead.  When leaders ask thought provoking questions that pertain to their organization’s values, the people they lead quickly realize that that the values are important… and should be taken seriously.

Great leaders teach the people they lead by using questions to do three things:

            

·        Point the people they lead in the right direction.

·        Assist the people they lead in developing critical thinking skills.

·        Help the people they lead to articulate what they already know.

Great leaders point the people they lead in the right direction by asking simple questions related to their organization’s values.  For example, many organizations hold “teamwork” as a value.  Leaders who want to reinforce this value can ask the people they lead a very simple question every time to bring suggestions to them:  “who else needs to know about this to make it happen?”  This simple question reinforces the teamwork value – and it saves headaches down the road because everybody is on board with projects from the very beginning.

Great leaders also use questions to help the people they lead develop their critical thinking skills.  Critical thinking is the ability to assess a situation and determine the appropriate course of action.  These leaders use questions to assist the people they lead in analyzing issues and deciding what to do. 

Here’s an example of a question great leaders use to build critical thinking skills in the people they lead.  When one of the people they lead approaches them for advice, they ask “what do our values tell you is the right thing to do here?”  These leaders follow up with questions like “what if…” and “have you thought about this…” questions.  The people that these leaders lead become better thinkers because of questions like this.  And, they soon develop the habit of factoring organizational values into their decision making processes.

Finally, great leaders ask questions to help the people they lead articulate what they already know.  Leaders use these types of questions to help the people they lead gain the confidence they need to be successful.  When one of the people they lead asks for their advice on a subject in which these leaders feel the person is competent and knowledgeable, they turn the tables.  These leaders ask questions like: “what do you think we should do?”  Leaders who use this technique find that the people they lead often surprise themselves by coming up with good answers to questions on their own.  When this happens, great leaders reinforce the people they lead for their decision making ability – especially when the answer is in line with, or reinforces organizational values. 

Paul Sims says, “leadership is synonymous with teaching.  Both activities are about the same thing: showing the way.”  Great leaders know this, and use questions to show the way to the people they lead.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for reading.  Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense.  Check out my other blog: www.CareerSuperStar.com for common sense advice on becoming the life and career star you are meant to be.

I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Bud

PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open.  Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.

Comments

[az medical marijuana doctor]

Needs to be in tact on it. Such a good example.