I appreciated Ryan’s blog post on Northouse’s definition of leadership linked here.
His thoughts around Northouse’s definition are centred around the relationship between the leader and the group and how this dynamic works. It was well synthesized and concise and I appreciated his comment on allowing members of the group ownership of the common goal and how this allows for the group to go further and tap into their potential.
I liked his question at the end, so I wanted to comment on it:
“How then should a leader respond to an individual who is no longer working toward the common goal?”
This is a tough question and I think it is a different answer for each person and it is situational. It depends on where the root of the issue is coming from. In my experience, it is helpful to first take a look at your interactions with the person and your leadership. Then after evaluating, have a sit down with the person. To diagnose what is going on, you could ask yourself and them:
- Have you (the leader) made the common goal (s) clear to them?
- Ask them if they understood the common goal (s) ?
- Assess: do you think they have understood and are on board with the common goal (s) of your team?
If you have a good relationship with them and trust has been built, it would be good to dive deeper and ask the following:
- If they said yes to understanding the common goal of the team, ask: is this also what they think the common goal (s) should be or do they have other ideas?
- Also ask: do you find yourself getting side-tracked by other pressing priorities? What are those?
- If they say no to understanding the common goal, dig and find out where the misunderstanding happened. It could be that you failed to communicate the common goal clear enough.
Sometimes people just need help managing priorities or knowing what is expected of them. They may hear you when you say the common goal is X, but they have many other pressing priorities that they also think you expect of them that crowd that out. Clarify expectations around the common goal always!
In assessing and asking these questions you could discover some of these 5 possible situations:
1) The person misunderstood or was not clear on the common goal of the group.
2) The person is feeling crushed by other expectations and cannot move towards the common goal.
3) The person is being deliberately defiant.
4) The person has many pressing priorities outside of work that are leaking into work. These priorities could be related to tough circumstances: physically, emotionally or relationally.
5) The person has deeper personal issues, that could be: emotional, relational or spiritual issues that are affecting them in all aspects of life.
In relation to 1 & 2, they are easier to correct. Situations 3, 4 and 5 may be longer processes and not easy to work through.
I find the stronger the common goal and direction, the clearer it is who is really on board. When goals, mission and vision are not clear, its easier for people on a team to do their own thing and have their own priorities.
QUESTION: What would you do if situations 3, 4 and 5 were the case with a person on your team? You can answer for just one of the situations.
Monica
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: theory and practice (8th ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
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