Are Your Leaders Able To Do Everything?

There is a popular saying in leadership circles out there, which is: “Don’t ask your team to do anything you aren’t willing to do yourself.”

So that you know right up front, I think that statement is a pile of … hogwash (gotta be careful on choice of words to use). 

I suppose people will say that by using the word “willing” in there, it allows it to be a broader, more inclusive statement. But the fact of the matter is that I, as a leader, should never be willing to do things that I am simply not good at!

Southwest Airlines was a client of mine at a previous job.  They used to pride themselves on making statements such as, “We want all of our people to be willing to load baggage or hand out peanuts and drinks.”  That doesn’t seem like a bad sentiment.  Why shouldn’t their managers and other people take on some of those jobs once in a while to better understand what it’s like? 

I’ll tell you why: I want a professional flight attendant on my plane!  I want her or him to know precisely what to do in case of an emergency.  I want them to remain cool and calm because they have been drilled in these aspects so many times they are prepared and confident.  I don’t want some management guy who had a 2-hour training class to be in that position when things go bad. 

And let’s take this example to the logical conclusion, does that mean they want their management team to be able to fly the planes?  I don’t think so.  And I don’t think you’d fly on a plane where that was a possibility.

To be fair, I haven’t heard these comments from SWA in a long time, and I’m glad.  When I step on their airplanes, I want to know that I have qualified people doing the job. 

But I still hear that kind of comment from leaders in other industries.  Don’t get me wrong, I think it is great when someone has worked themselves up through the ranks, doing different jobs and then becomes the leader of the organization.  That experience is invaluable. 

In my own career, I rose through the ranks and became the leader of the group that I had “grown up” in (I was in IT).  This was a very comfortable position to be in.  Since I had been heavily involved in the design and implementation of our core product, I knew almost everything about it.  My team came to me for solutions to problems all the time.  I felt important. 

But somewhere along the way, I realized I was bored.  And I wasn’t much of a leader.  The people on my team weren’t really growing either.  I maintained almost all control on decision making.

Then I had the “opportunity” to lead a team that I knew nothing about.  It was the best thing that could ever have happened to me (although, at the time, I wasn’t all that happy about it). I learned that I couldn’t do everything; that others had to take the lead in different areas.  That was when I really discovered my strengths! 

And I realized I had some glaring weaknesses.  This allowed me to find people who could support me in those areas which, in turn, gave them opportunities for leadership.  We all grew through that experience.  I’m still very proud of that team because of all we accomplished.

The key to those accomplishments was not what I did, but what we, as a team, did!  Because I learned to NOT try to do everything; that I simply was not good in a lot of areas; that when my team handled things much better than I could have, we could all succeed. 

The one thing that I will say positively about the statement I started this post with is this: be willing to be by your team’s side anytime they need you there.  In the case of my teams, there were many times they had to be up all night, and I was always there with them.  I wasn’t doing the work, they were much better at it than I was, but I was there to encourage and support (and to buy food when necessary–that was something else I learned from a fantastic leader I once had). 

So back to the title of this post: Are your leaders able to do everything?  The correct answer is, “Of course not, and I don’t expect them to!”