Whirlwind leadership

Thunderstorms recently. Big ones. Many tree limbs were tore down and hail (in some areas) and power outages all over the area. I heard over 200,000 people in the Detroit area were without power and it would be several days before service could be restored. As I thought about this storm, my mind wandered to ideas of leadership and change management (I know kind of an odd juxtaposition, but then that is my mind!)

Ever notice that some leaders are like the big storms? They come into a leadership position (workplace, church, community group, a teen group, whatever) and they immediately begin to whirl around and make changes and toss ideas around, make changes, exert their authority.

They have read the old leadership books that talk about the fact that leaders are on a “honeymoon” for the first six months and people are more willing to accept the ideas of change early on in their position, and so you must strike while opportunity is hot. So these new leaders whirl in and change this, change that, reorg this area, throw out that procedure, and make sure they put their stamp on everything in the area. Then like that storm last night, they exhaust themselves and move on to a new position and start all over again.

There is some truth in being able to make changes early in a tenure. But with the idea that real leadership is based on relationships and trust, then that means it takes longer for you to develop credibility with the people you are working with. This means (to me) that you go slower at first. You establish yourself as a leader, let people learn to trust you, get some “wins” under your belt and leverage that increased confidence into being able to do more with the folks you are working with.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not manipulation, this is truly developing trusting relationships with those you are working with, in order to create a sense of “buy in” and camaraderie in order to pull together to make lasting and significant changes and improvements in the workplace. As you develop this sense of trust and find out the strengths and weaknesses of your team members, you can “pitch” projects to them that play to their talents. This lets them know that you are trusting them and they will enjoy themselves more, and work harder for you to accomplish the agreed upon goals. What a concept! It helps to spur innovation and creativity. Staff morale will go up. And you aren’t seen as a whirlwind that rushes in, makes wholesale changes without regard to others or without understanding WHY things are done as they are, and then rushes out again. Staff will trust you, and share more with you (not just about themselves, but about the work processes). You will become one of the team and not just a BOSS.

What a concept.

What do you think? Have you ever experienced the “whirlwind” boss?