A Barometer of Your Leadership
What Are Your Employees Telling You Through Your Open Door Policy?
Aug 6, 2008
You can measure the barometer of your leadership from your people by how they do or don’t take advantage of your open door policy.
Oren Harari, in his book The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powellsays, "The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care".
Some managers can count on a long line outside their office door most of the day, every day. In those scenarios, the manager should question whether or not he or she is avoiding issues and enabling staff instead of giving them the innovative power they need in order to succeed.
The other end of the spectrum is the manager who never sees anyone outside his office waiting to ask a question or gain clarity on a project. This could be even more deadly than too many people outside the open door. Even if everyone is well trained, empowered and has all the tools ever developed for them to do their jobs well, people will invariably still need to talk through some aspect of their work.
Either situation is an innovation killer. In the first scenario, no one is brave enough to bring new ideas to the manager, and in the second no one thinks it will make a difference so they don’t even bother to try.
Ed Gill, licensed coach and owner of Brightpoint Business Coaching, says, “Real leaders make themselves available and accessible to everyone in the organization. They must show concern for the efforts and challenges of their people. Doing so goes a long way to building a positive culture or figuring out better ways to achieve success.”
Gill suggests reading your leadership barometer and recalibrating where necessary.
Reading Your Barometer
- Set very clear expectations for your people, and make sure they know that you trust them to make things happen but only if you really do trust them. If not, that is another subject matter entirely.
- Provide feedback on a regular basis. Sometimes employees may be coming in your door because they simply need affirmation. Everyone has a different requirement for strokes; make sure you are providing them.
- Set regularly scheduled meetings with every one of your people. Depending on their needs and the dynamics of their role, they may need a daily, weekly or monthly huddle with you.
- Never go a month's time without meeting with your staff. Ask them to hold onto things that can wait for the scheduled meeting but help them to understand that if the building is on fire, you'll welcome the interruption.
- Make sure everyone in the organization understands that you value and want their ideas and input, especially if they know something that will benefit the company, employees or customer base.
- Take action and follow-up on everything that you accept. Watch out for people that are just looking to dump an issue in your lap for resolution because they don't want to deal with it themselves.
Take action and follow-up on everything that you accept. Watch out for people that are just looking to dump an issue in your lap for resolution because they don’t want to deal with it themselves.
As a manager and leader, it is tempting to stop having an open door. Frustration grows when people bring things to your attention that are indeed real issues, but they come with no offer for improvement or suggested solutions.
“Encourage your staff to bring the challenge and offer up a resolution without feeling as if they need to ask your permission to move forward,” suggests Gill. “If they believe in the course of action, give them the green light to pursue it.”
Finally, to create an environment of such trust through an open door policy, make sure that you have the right people in the right jobs, they have the training and tools needed for success and then make sure you tell them of your expectations.
Reviewing your own barometer as a leader will help your staff learn how to read their own barometer and make improvements that will benefit the company as a whole.
