There’s nothing worse than a brilliant mind wasted on mindless compliance.
With AI now stepping up to fulfill its promise of handling monotonous tasks that numb the senses, authentically intelligent employees can finally focus on tackling the ‘hows,’ ‘whys,’ and ‘whens’ that lie at the heart of business.
Just as employees need to adapt to the new AI-powered reality, managers must also readjust their leadership styles.
This means moving away from simple-minded controls to embracing trust and empowerment, in particular if they intend to harness the best potential from their workforce.
It’s Time To Move From “Do What I’d Do” to “Do What You Know Works”
We’ve all encountered bosses who treat their team members as mere extensions of themselves.
Creating carbon copies of oneself is a tested and true coping strategy that perfection-seeking micromanagers naturally gravitate to, but even macromanagers can fall into the trap of Xeroxing themselves as a means of maintaining a sense of control.
Although managers can find both satisfaction and success in deploying an army of Mini-Me replicas that execute plans exactly as ordered, the ramifications of imposing stringent controls upon authentically intelligent employees extend far beyond diminishing worker satisfaction.
The main problem with instructing instead of inspiring is that, at best, you get precisely what you requested.
More likely, managers who control instead of empower will also annihilate creativity, innovation, and passion, all of which are bound to emerge when the team has a genuine sense of ownership over the process and their outputs.
What’s worse, managers who start exerting tight control over creative processes will often need to maintain it indefinitely once employees shift from learning how to do their job efficiently to feeding their boss with outputs to approve and take over.
Fortunately, even the most entrenched micromanagers can reform. In fact, simply replacing compliance and control by standards and a shared vision will do wonders.
Lead with Autonomy, Accountability and Empowerment
Most employers publicly congratulate themselves about hiring smart people while also privately treating their employees as disasters waiting to happen.
Yes, controls, policies and clear instructions are necessary for any firm to function. However, they are effective only to the extent that they add value instead of destroying it.
As a rule of thumb, ‘no’ makes for a poor default stance for organizations that are looking to foster long-term success and growth. What works instead is giving employees the vision and tools they need to excel and trusting them to take it from there.
Thankfully, these grand ideas of autonomy and empowerment can translate to surprisingly small acts and gestures when put into practice.
Consider, for instance, the transformative impact of shifting meeting titles from ‘status updates’ to ‘leadership support sessions’ that are focused on resourcing and roadblocks.
To counter inclinations toward excessive control, managers can also redistribute accountability from themselves to those actually in charge of the activity.
In fact, nothing motivates a smart person as much as knowing that they will need to stand behind their work in front of the client, CEO or executive board.
Effective leaders know that sharing the limelight is a powerful tool for creating a sense of accountability, which is rocket fuel for high performance when correctly applied.
As a leader, the next time you catch yourself thinking ‘I’d do this quicker myself‘ or ‘what on earth was the team thinking here’ seize a moment to pause.
Rather than projecting authority and control, consider affording the team a chance to own their successes and mistakes and be ready to guide them through either.
Not as a boss that pushes them ahead, but as a leader that shows them the way forward.
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