Is Your Leadership Full of B.S.?
How Leaders Overlook Their Most Reliable Employees and Miss Opportunities for Growth
A friend of the family, who was once a teacher, related a moment to me that has stayed with me.
His principal walked into his classroom, handed him an envelope, and said, "This came in the mail for you."
Then walked away.
There was an award that named him Best of the Best for the whole district.
There was no celebration, no "Congratulations," and no genuine recognition of what he had achieved.
Just an envelope.
Perhaps that sounds rather small.
In fact, he had received the award, and the recognition was real, so it didn't matter how it was given to him.
Leadership is present in moments just like that.
It made me wonder something bigger:
What else might he have achieved if he had received more support, encouragement, and recognition from his leadership?
Would he have felt more confident in putting forward new ideas? In pursuing opportunities that he did not believe were available to him? In mentoring more people? In developing into something that he had not yet imagined for himself?
We'll never know.
That is the point that I believe leaders should take note of.
We spend a great deal of time discussing people development, identifying talent, supporting our employees, and establishing cultures in which people can grow.
Yet at other times, our actions tell a completely different story.
Consider the employee who consistently keeps all operations running.
He's reliable.
He never complains.
He can handle it.
He meets his deadlines, helps his colleagues, figures out what goes wrong, offers assistance when needed, does not require constant supervision, and leaders generally do not have to worry about his work being completed.
On the other hand, another employee is having difficulties.
- The employee has the meetings.
- The coaching.
- The check-ins.
- The development plan.
- The follow-up.
And the reliable employee?
He's fine.
That's what everybody supposes.
In some way, his reliability is the very thing that causes him to receive less attention, less development, and, at times, even less recognition.
There's the B.S.
It is not the case that employees who are struggling shouldn't get support—on the contrary, they should.
No employee should be overlooked when it comes to receiving support.
Recognition doesn't mean giving the same thing to everybody.
Some employees prefer public recognition, while others prefer mentorship, feedback, more responsibility, opportunities for development, autonomy, or the knowledge that someone has noticed the work they have been doing in silence.
Maybe the better question isn't:
Who do you need me to pay attention to at the moment?
Maybe it's:
Why have I not been paying attention to them since they've made my job easier?
It is one thing to acknowledge someone's potential after they have already proved it and quite another to create an environment that enables that potential to grow.
Maybe it is in this area that leaders should look at their own BS—the gap between what we claim to value and what our actions, in fact, reward.
Are we actually developing our most capable employees, or are we merely taking advantage of their capabilities?
An employee who never asks for help may still require leadership.
An employee who doesn't cause problems may still require development.
The employee who regularly delivers should not need to stop doing so just because someone decides to notice him.
The fact is, your best employee should not have to become a problem before they are given priority.
I am still getting to know things. I am still raising questions. I might be noticing more than is appropriate.
-KDS
