I read this tweet from Simon Sinek and it got me thinking.
Followers want to be taken care of. Leaders want to take care of others.
Be the leader you wish you had.
It is a sentiment that I absolutely agree with, but it got me thinking.
Who is looking after the leaders?
My area of focus is education, but I suspect this is an issue that leaks into every profession right now. The Pandemic has caused lots of issues for us as a society to deal with but one that is acute right now is a shortage of labour. Whether you are running a Starbucks franchise or a large IT firm, everyone is feeling a shortage of manpower. Education is no different. Teachers are in short supply, supply teachers are in very short supply, and school boards are desperate for educational assistants. In education as in other professions, when there is a shortage of manpower the work gets added to the leaders. They are expected to pick up the slack and keep things going, but at what cost?
Principals, Vice Principals and Superintendents are telling me they are already exhausted and for those in the Northern Hemisphere the school year has barely begun. So many tasks have been downloaded to the middle managers in education that they are starting to buckle under the strain. In conversation with one Principal, he told me that there are three Principals on leave in his Superintendency alone. The year has only begun.
Often throughout my career I would look to other businesses and professions to see if there were lessons I could learn from them that would help me with issues I was dealing with in education. I reached out to a Vice President of a Software Firm and an Entrepreneur. I asked both what they were doing to support their leaders in this most difficult of times. They responded in exactly the same way. They both said, “That is a very good question.” The VP talked about the mass exodus all industries were dealing with in the work force and the challenges it was presenting for those still working. He also commented on the difficulty of feeling able to really connect with folks when everything was remote. His company is continuing to have people work from home and contact is through regular zoom meetings.
Still curious, I reached out to another friend who runs Ironman challenges for CEOs. I was curious to know why his events targeted CEOs specifically, and what benefits he thought participants got from their involvement. He never did answer why CEOs but in listening to what he thought CEOs got out of the program it became obvious that he had created a mental and physical outlet for them to deal with their stress. The challenges offered them the opportunity to break away from the day-to-day grind of their jobs and challenge themselves physically while building a network with others in similar situations. My friend described the lasting friendships that had been formed through his program and the support the CEOs provided to one another after the challenges were completed. Perhaps the biggest lesson was that the CEOs valued the experience so much that they continued to train and enter further challenges. They took the time to allow it to happen.
The stress being placed on middle managers right now is not sustainable. While we look to them to support the people for whom they are responsible, we must also consider how we look after them. The Pandemic has caused many to re-evaluate what is important in life and frankly, the biggest exodus from the workforce has been women.
The question now becomes what to do.
Supporting our leaders is not easy but it can be done. It requires us to think differently about what we are doing and why. In fact, maybe those two things need to be switched because Simon would also say that we don’t spend enough time on the why. When people feel trapped in a cycle in which they feel they have no control their feelings of despair climb. By spending time on the why and valuing the voices of our leaders in the design of the what and the how, we not only capitalize on the capacity of an organization, but we may also come up with solutions not previously considered.
In education, the area in which I have the most experience, there is a wealth of knowledge and experience within the ranks of Principals, Vice Principals and Superintendents. When they are a part of the decision making, when there is shared voice and collaboration, it creates a sense of efficacy and control over the how and the what. Top-down solutions are rarely effective and frankly, as Steve Jobs would say, why hire smart, talented people and then tell them what to do. We also need to encourage our leaders to make their own wellness a priority. If we think wellness is important then it needs to be modelled by all members of the organization. If our leaders talk about wellness to their staff but model working late every night and look like they have the weight of the world on their shoulders, the message is lost. All leaders need to be like the CEOs in the Ironman challenge. They need to make their wellness a priority and they need to recognize the value of connecting with others outside of work.
Some ideas to consider:
· Adopt a process that encourages shared voice and shared decision making creating a sense of efficacy among leaders.
· Encourage leaders to make their own wellness a priority. (Putting wellness activities right into their calendars and refusing to schedule over them.)
· Talk about ways to maximize the capacity of the organization. When leaders try to be the smartest person in the room they are missing out on the contributions that could be made by the people they have hired.
· Listen to the messages your leaders are telling you through their body language, manner, and demeanor.
· Get to know your people. Who they are, what they care about, their families, and their challenges. Caring about your people on a personal level goes a long way.
· Try having a management meeting with no agenda. Encourage your leaders to identify topics they would like to discuss and then divide into groups to do just that.
Our leaders need support too. They need to feel valued; their voices need to be heard, and they need to be strongly encouraged to make their wellness a priority. The Pandemic has taught us many important lessons. What remains to be seen is if we will heed those lessons or just fall back into practices that have been found wanting.
