Stop meddling, start leading

If you’re a business owner and finding yourself meddling with office politics or making changes to people’s work, you need to reassess how you are running your company. The whole idea of rising up in an organisation is that the balance shifts. Less time is spent doing the actual work and more is spent managing the company and telling people what they need to do instead.

Kate Mercer, co-founder of Leaders Lab and author of A Buzz in the Building explains that although you do not need to let go of your expertise, you now need to learn not to work in your business, but instead, on it. Obviously, as a leader in your organisation, you will feel inclined to do stuff your way. But you need to understand that doing so is no longer your job or responsibility. You may assume that others will do it the way that you have in the past, but many want to do it their own way.

Ms Mercer explained that working in the organisation is handling the concrete, visible, day-to-day work. Whereas as a business owner working on the organisation, you will need to train yourself to spot things which at first will not seem concrete and visible. For example, by asking questions about your organisation like how motivated people are, if you struggle to get others to abide by your standards, if you feel like you micro-manage others and if it’s always you running after those below you to keep the work running smoothly.

So how can senior management make the shift but still have a good idea about what the workers in their organisation want? Ms Mercer said: “It’s simple, ask the team. They may have even better, and certainly more personal ideas, that’s why there’s no point trying to train them in your or anyone else’s way of doing it. Instead, tell them what you are trying to achieve, and start a conversation with them about this outcome, how they see it, and how they personally would take steps to achieve it.”

By talking to your workers, you will be able to get across to them your tips and ideas for their work and soon, you will no longer need to attempt to do the work for them yourself as they will be working in a way that you want them to.

Ms Mercer added: “In the conversation, you’ll hear if any of them have ideas that don’t fit your values or standards and you’ll be able to explain and clarify these again. If you are willing to listen, together you will come up with a variety of ways of achieving the original outcome that are even better than the method you came up with by yourself.”

The idea is simply to transfer your vision over to your workers. When they are aware of it, they will feel empowered to express the organisation’s values and you will no longer need to meddle. You can instead spend your time wisely on getting on with your own job and focusing on your business, not in it.

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