In these past few weeks I started following some pages about leadership that often post those images with sentences in bold about leading people and companies. When you see them for the first time, they all make a lot of sense. You feel like someone heard your thoughts and put them into writing, you go and like the post, even comment with something that describes how you try to do the same at your job. And it ends up with you thinking you have all this knowledge about what being a leader really means. However, there is a lot that these inspirational sentences are not telling you.
I saw one this week about micromanaging and how this ends up frustrating and pressuring employees. And the sentence ended with something like “hire the right people instead”, basically showing that you should provide autonomy and trust your team and, in order to do that, you would need to hire better. This is all great in theory, but I can’t just enter the office on Monday and fire all people that are not working as expected. And, in reality, I don’t want to.
There was another one about how important it is to surround yourself with people who talk about visions and ideas, which is also great in theory, but isn’t it important to be influenced by all kinds of people? Won’t I need to go to the office on Monday and talk with everyone about what’s on their mind? Is the vision all that matters to employees?
Don’t get me wrong. There is always some truth behind each of these sentences. However there is so much more to consider when we are leading people and organizations. True, no one should have micromanagement as their number 1 method. The principle of micromanaging is just wrong to begin with. Does this mean that we should never do it? No. If micromanaging someone’s work is the best way to help them develop and people understand why you’re doing that and value your contribution, it can be the right approach. Should you continue doing it in the long run? Probably not, as it will be important for people to learn something from the micromanagement, otherwise it won’t be worth it.
Hiring the right people should be one of our goals as leaders. However, developing the people we are already working with should be our number 1 priority. And a lot of methods can be considered for this. Your job will be to find the one which is right for you and for the person. And what does the term “right people” even mean? I was probably not the right person to perform in the role i am at the moment when I join the company. But I can be that right person now. I guess I was the one lucky enough to have the right leader all this time.
Inspiring sentences are great to motivate ourselves. However, be cautious, as they hide a lot of the struggles you will face at your job and not everything is black or white. We’re people, are we that predictable?
André Vidal 