This is a gem of a sentence. It embodies the spirit of what this series of articles is about. Near the very end of the second episode -ever- of my podcast, I asked the question “Is there anything we didn’t get to discuss that you want to leave with the listeners?” My guest, Alan White, threw out this statement: “Don’t lose sight of the individual.”
Alan has spent his career in Information Technology and has had the opportunity to lead many teams from various levels within several organizations. I had just spent the past thirty minutes asking Alan questions about leading teams and the most important things to remember about being a leader. And here’s the funny thing about his statement, our entire thirty minute interview was embodied in that one sentence. Every answer from Alan’s mouth had been motivated by his simple slogan “Don’t lost sight of the individual.”
Someone might say, but being a leader is also about producing results. I honestly don’t think so. But please let me explain what I mean by that.
All companies care about things like the bottom line and profit and revenue. This isn’t a vilifying statement. A corporation must care about these things because without them, the company will cease to exist. People promoted into areas of leadership have to care about these things too. Leaders are put in charge of projects or goals. So, leaders must produce results. But, if you really think about it, every employee within a company should be focused on these things and even though every employee may not be directly held responsible for the success of specific goals or projects, every employee should produce results. If they don’t, they either need to be mentored, given necessary training, found a new role within the company, or eventually dismissed.
If you’ve followed my reasoning, this would mean that producing results is a requirement for those in leadership as well as those not in leadership. Leaders may be held more responsible or to a higher degree of scrutiny when it comes to producing results, but each and every employee is expected to produce results. Therefore, producing results is not unique to leadership. Producing results is not innate to leadership. The unique aspect of leadership is leading . . . people.
But each of us, yep – I mean every individual person reading this article, understands how easy it is to become consumed with completing projects and exceeding goals. Leaders are especially bombarded from all sides with the need to complete and achieve. So we can all understand how easy it is for the human aspect of leadership to unintentionally be pushed to the side.
Alan’s sound advice is that during our busy and unrelenting efforts to produce results, don’t lose sight of the individual. It’s the individuals who are actually completing the projects and performing the work to exceed the goals. But they matter in a much more personal way than just being a cog in the giant machine producing your results – right?
There’s nothing special nor unique – not even that useful – about promoting someone into leadership who can produce results. If a potential candidate for leadership is a rockstar at producing results, but doesn’t care about others, leave him in his current role. Let him continue producing results like he always has. But please do not promote him into leadership where he doesn’t belong. In the long run, he will diminish the productivity of those placed on his team or cause them to leave.
That’s why it’s imperative for companies to promote people into leadership than genuinely care about the people they lead. Leaders who see their teams as individuals with families, individuals with lives outside of work, individuals with worth that comes from more than the work they perform for the company. It’s this perspective, when practiced by leaders from a genuine interest in others, that unlocks great leadership.
So, take it from my friend Alan, “Don’t lose sight of the individual.”
