Time management is a grand idea when dealing with the things in your
life. It’s all about organization, efficiency and getting things
done. As a tool for leading people through change, however, it misses
the mark. In fact, when leading change, the last thing you want to do
is manage your time. Instead, invest it in the people with potential
to become change leaders themselves, and the returns you get may
surprise you. Following is an incredible story that illustrates the
point.
A few years ago I became upset when a player on the NFL’s Carolina
Panthers beat up a teammate and subsequently was suspended for one
measly game by the team. I felt this punishment was too lax (after
all, the attacked teammate ended up in the hospital) and wrote an
angry letter to the teams’ owner, Jerry Richardson, expressing as
much. Mr. Richardson not only acknowledged my letter after I figured
it would end up in the trash but he went one giant-step further. He
offered to come visit my thirteen-year-old son, who was a big fan of
the team’s, and me, along with the star player in question, wide
receiver Steve Smith.
They made the two-hour drive each way from team headquarters to my
home and stayed with us for three hours. I learned that day that
Steve Smith is a good man who made a bad mistake and was willing to
learn and take responsibility for his actions. I admire him greatly
for that. From Mr. Richardson, I learned the power of a leader being
personally invested in future leaders who can make a difference.
Jerry Richardson invested time in me that day, but more importantly
he invested time and energy in Steve Smith, someone with potential to
lead changes on the field of play. I can only imagine the discussions
they had as they drove back and forth and the bonds they forged and
then carried forward. It’s no coincidence that the following season
Steve Smith emerged as the team’s biggest star and helped lead them
to a Super Bowl appearance.
Mr. Richardson identified Steve Smith as someone I call a ‘diamond-in-
the-rough,’ a leader of untapped potential. Then he personally
invested his time and energy to help Steve unleash his own potential.
You can do much the same for the uncut diamonds in your organization.
Here are five tips to help get you started.
 Hold yourself accountable for people development.
Common comfort zones such as crunching numbers and formulating
strategy have their place, but both are useless if you don’t have
leaders in place to execute. Therefore, hold yourself accountable for
the people side of the equation too. Recognize more pressing issues
will always come up, so do whatever it takes to make finding and
developing people a priority. Schedule time for building
relationships into your calendar. Make a list or create a spreadsheet
to track your progress if you must. Set goals for people development
and hold yourself to them.
Identify your Steve Smiths, or your “diamonds-in-the-rough”.
You can’t invest in your future change leaders if you don’t know who
they are. Some ‘diamonds’ are obvious. Their talent and ability
dazzles and stands out, but others may require energy and effort to
unearth. This may be especially true if you work in a large
organization where talented people lay buried within the bureaucracy.
In this case, use Tom Peters’ old technique of management by walking
around. Get out of your comfort zone. Visit places in your
organization where you don’t know as many people. Talk to at least
one new person a day. Take the new guy or woman to lunch. When you
visit remote sites, make it a point to meet people relevant to your
line of business, then, follow up with those you meet.
Once you find them, don’t delegate your ‘diamond’ development.
Certainly Human Resources and your training department have a roles
to play in polishing future leaders’ skills and capabilities. But the
savviest leaders take personal responsibility for helping people
grow. Once you have identified the people you think could be future
change leaders for your organization, get personally involved in
their development. Jerry Richardson answered my letter and placed the
initial call to me. Jerry Richardson invited Steve Smith to join him
on his visit. Jerry Richardson even drove the car himself. He didn’t
delegate these duties; he owned them as his. Poor time management?
Perhaps. But, poor time management often creates the conditions for
great change leadership to occur.
Polish your gems by asking questions.
The best leaders ask questions – lots of them. They don’t invest
much time in running around telling people what to do. In fact, they
don’t hire people who have to wait to be told what to do. Instead,
they unleash talent by presenting problems and asking for ideas
versus offering solutions. They understand their job is to lead, not
do. They encourage people to think. They encourage people to act.
They remove organizational roadblocks that hold talent back. They ask
questions versus bark orders.
Explore ideas and build relationships beyond the boundaries of work.
Engage people on a variety of topics beyond your common industry
issues. Refining someone’s leadership often means helping them look
beyond the confines of their everyday world for novel solutions and
product innovations they can bring back to it. Become emotionally
invested too. Spend time getting to know your future leaders. Find
out what matters to them, inside and outside of work. Sometimes
engaging in small talk can lead to big insights. You may discover a
personal situation that is holding someone down or holding him or her
back, such as the illness or loss of a loved one. You may not be able
to do anything tangible to help, but simply knowing that you care can
be reassuring and provide a boost. If you want people to be there for
you when the going gets tough, as it inevitably will when things
change, you need to personally invest in them first.
A Final Word
If investing in people sounds like a ‘soft’ activity to you, you’re
right. It is. But rare is the business that can consistently return
good, hard results without making soft investments in people first.
People determine whether you win or lose, whether the game is
football or business or life. To better lead change, stop managing
your time and start investing it in people. Then enjoy as the wins
pile up.
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