At this point in my career, my main job is managing Executives. Basically, managing people that don’t need much management lol. BUT I’ve got to admit I’ve really messed this up a handful of times in the last 5 years.
This has got me thinking a lot about what I did wrong and what I could have done differently. My usual approach is to first find great qualified people, then let them “do their own thing” with light oversight. I’m still a believer in this practice, but I now realize “doing your own thing” needs to fit under some basic guidelines I have.
After a lot of thought, here is what I sent to my Executives. I call it the “10 Mind-shifts My Executives Must Make:
Mind Shift #1 - You got to where you are because you’re a hard worker. You are smart, capable, and have a great work ethic. You probably pride yourself on what you can get done on your own. This is the first major mind-shift you have to make, and yes it will feel uncomfortable at first. The first mind-shift you MUST make is from “what can I get done” to “what can my department get done.” I promise you, no matter how great you are, you can’t get as much done as a good team of people. Now you might have an entire team of good people, but likely not one of them alone will be as good as you, this is why you are the leader. At this point in the game, your brain is your value, not your muscle. Your wisdom and experience are what’s needed, not your hours doing the actual work. When you successfully make this shift you will view your productivity as a team, not you individually. A mentor of mine (Darren Hardy) says if someone can do it 80% as good as you, that’s good enough. Move onto the next thing.
Mind Shift #2 - You’re a heart surgeon. Let me explain. You must view everything YOU DO PERSONALLY as what is my hourly rate doing this exact task. You must look at yourself as a heart surgeon. The elite professional heart surgeon isn’t taking in the customer, scheduling surgery day, prepping the patient, prepping the tools, cleaning the room, dressing the area, cutting open the body… you get where I’m going. The specialist shows up and does the short part of the surgery that requires immense skill, wisdom, and experience. This specific job pays about $500k base and they’re doing multiple surgeries a day. Every task you’re doing ask yourself, is this at my pay grade? If it’s not, there may be a good reason, but as long as we’re growing and you’re staying within budgets, you should be focused on doing tasks that are equal to your pay. If you successfully make this shift every time you sit down to do a task you will know your hourly rate to do so. Most of your day should be spent at your pay grade.
Mind Shift #3 - If you make it through the first two mind shifts you will likely have a moment of guilt when handing off certain projects to your team, because yes you could do them, but yes you’re too busy doing bigger picture work. Your team needs to know you’re not above jumping in and helping with any pay grade of task, but if you’re running your department right, those moments will pop up a lot naturally. Also, if they see you doing the heart surgery well, they will understand the importance of your time. Your team will know if you’re delegating because you don’t want to work, or if you’re delegating because you’re too busy doing bigger things. There is no getting around the truth on this one. If you’re trying to not work your team will see, they will lose faith and respect for you, and results will go down. So the Mind Shift, forget the guilt, but stay busy on the big picture stuff. Share what you’re working on with your team and have faith they will follow.
Mind Shift #4 - We’re growing, and as long as we’re growing your people will have too much to do. One of the ways you know you’re growing is you are asking too much of your people. So you need to tell them upfront “I’m going to overload you. I know you’re a hard worker, so please let me know what capacity you’re running at so I can hire accordingly.” One of the worst situations you can get in is when you have a passive person assuming if that if they say “I have too much work” it will be looked on negatively, and they will end up overloading, under-producing, and burning out. If you take your people into burn out you will lose weeks or months of productivity. Encourage them to take care of themselves, but when they are working they are sprinting. If they have too much on their plate they need to tell you. We don’t do overtime (long-term) and we don’t have work that could get done this week, put out by months because they don’t have time. The mind-shift, You ALWAYS need to be aware of your department's workload and when you need to hire. I prefer to be slightly over-staffed compared to understaffed. If you’re overstaffed you can pursue new things that you haven’t thought of because you have the extra manpower. Err on the overstaffed side.
Mind Shift #5 - Inspect what you expect, not trust or don’t trust. This one is big. We work on trust, and we give people trust until proven otherwise, and in black and white matters this holds true, but some things aren’t so obvious. So from day 1 inspect the details of your department no matter who or what it involves. This is your job. If you do this with everyone it’s not a matter of trust, it’s a matter of doing your job correctly. Inspect what you expect regularly. If you don’t and you end up in a situation of not trusting somebody it will likely damage your relationship with them no matter what you end up finding. Set the stage early that you check up on everything pertaining to your department, always, no matter who they are.
Mind Shift #6 - Who you be, they will become. I stole this from a mentor of mine Mike Jones, and he was referring to raising children, but I think it applies to the workplace as well. Who you are being regularly is who your people will become. So if you value training for your people, you need to be constantly training. If you value stretching your comfort zone, you should be stretching yours. You get the idea. But this holds true in even more subtle ways. If you value honesty, you’ve got to admit every time you’re wrong, with the emphasis you are wrong. If you want vulnerability, admit every time you’re unsure or don’t know. If you “know everything” you’re not going to last long on my team anyway. Be the person you want your team to be like.
Mind Shift #7 - Forget any or all of the credit. If you’re running your department right your people will be doing most of the lifting. So your people deserve most of the credit. In fact, as an Executive, you should give them almost all of the credit. Take a small piece by saying “we did it” but never say “I did it.” In an executive role, you should not be at an insecure level as a person who needs credit to feel validated. You know you’re worth, the Executive team knows your worth, relax, give away the credit freely, and give it publicly and often. It will help your people grow, feel enthused, and enjoy working for you.
Mind Shift #8 - Don’t be afraid of telling the truth about how you’re feeling about anything. I can’t do my job well if I don’t know what you need. If you’re stressed out and need a break, tell me. If you don’t agree with a decision of mine, tell me. If you don’t like something about your job, tell me. If you don’t think you’re the person for the job, tell me. I am not going to assume what you need I’m going to wait for you to tell me. I can handle the worst truth, but I can’t handle the smallest lie. And if I know the truth I can at least begin finding a solution. This goes with anyone on the Executive team as well. If we can’t bring up the hard stuff with each other we’re screwed anyway. So, your honest relationship with me and the team is the key to your success. We can be honest, respectful and kind, and still have the hard conversations.
Mind Shift #9 - Your team is you, and they are your responsibility. When I look at how you’re doing I’m looking at you and your team at the same time. If you have problem people long enough, you’re going to look bad. You need to run a tight ship, no matter what. If your people are sloppy on the clock, you look bad. If your people are gossipy and dramatic, you look bad. If your people are clicky at non-inclusive, you look bad. This might not feel fair in some ways, but this is how we run a company. You need to have great, rounded, friendly people on your team or be prepared for me to step in a clean it up. You need to spend time being aware of how your team is interacting in the company. I will not have island teams that don’t play well with others.
Mind Shift #10 - Lean on your team. We each are in a specific seat on the bus, and we should be the best person for the seat we’re in. If you don’t think someone on the Executive team is the best for their seat let me know so we can discuss it. To go deeper, if we have a key person for a key role you need to lean on them as the expert. Yes we all have input and yes your opinion is valid but it must be ran past the person who is the expert at it. Don’t ever skip someone who is the expert in that field or head of that department. In fact, for many big decisions or projects, everyone on the Executive team should know about it and sign off. Everyone’s input and viewpoint is so different and crucial. Lean on the team.
To close this out I just want to say a few things. I’m working to be more direct as a manager. I’m also working to be more upfront with my expectations in every relationship in my life. I’ve had to learn these things with a lot of pain, and it’s forced me to make changes. I’ve found I’m a more subtle leader that expresses things after I have had time to contemplate and feel. So, if I’ve mentioned something more than once, it’s worth taking strong action on. I will be better about bringing up things that matter to me and I hope you will do the same.
Sincerely,
Shane Stott