Leaders drive organisations. But in order to steer the group in the proper direction, those in the drivers' seat often find it hard to balance the tendency to either drive too hard to a decision, or stay afraid to drive at all.
Patrick Lencioni, founder of The Table Group, in a post on Follow the GLS, cited his own parents as examples of good leaders, who always found a way to bring their children into the decision making process and yet made sure to make it clear that the final decision was going to rest with them.
Lencioni said that in organisations, there can be go getters who drive forward at lightning speed, leaving everyone behind, and those who will wait for everybody to get in the car but then forget that they should be driving.
The first, he said, are the 'gas pedal leader', but the downside to this type of leader is that because they don't engage the team in moving forward with them, they are likely to lose good people as they their ideas will just be disregarded. The second type is called the Stuck on Neutral leader who often prioritises the level of harmony so much that the team sometimes loses a sense of urgency to move onward. The decision making process becomes compromised because of this and worse, opportunities are lost because of taking up too much time rehashing what has been tackled before.
The good news is, there is a way to make sure that a good leader doesn't get stuck in any of these gears. To get unstuck, Lencioni reveals his 4 secrets to motivate teams when they have stopped making progress.
For one, Lencioni advises leaders to watch the clock, making sure that they do not make decisions too fast, losing the team in the process, but also not too slow that they lose opportunities.
"In general, the amount of time spent working through a decision should be directly proportionate to the weight of the decision itself. A decision about a new product launch should not take the same amount of time as what type of pizza to order for lunch," he said.
Another is to make sure that the team understands the difference between a discussion, where the final decision is still up for debate, and a final decision where action should simply be taken.
Leaders also need to ask the room because there are often good ideas within the group that need to be shared and this will help the team be fully on board with a certain project.
Good leaders are unfraid to ask for help, he added.
"If you want to be a better leader, ask for feedback regularly. Encourage your team to speak up when you're either driving too hard, or not driving hard enough. Feedback can be one of the greatest gifts a team can give. I've found that the best leaders are those who can be vulnerable enough to invite that feedback regularly," he said.
