How Today’s Top Leaders Drive Growth

Shifting the Traditional Heroic Manager Mindset to Drive Growth and Performance

By Tom Roth

#Articles#Leadership

Every organization struggles to transform and grow its business. Whether changing the strategy, producing innovative products and services, leveraging new technology, or integrating new systems and processes, the single most important factor in successful strategy execution is the people. The critical question is: “Do you have an engaged workforce committed to growing and transforming the business?”

Over the years, we have asked hundreds of individuals to think of a time when they were energized, engaged, and working at their best. What we heard may surprise you, but it may not if you stop and actually think about an experience in which you were working at your highest potential.

Five conditions consistently surface and contribute to people working “in the flow” and at their best:

  • A challenging task—give me something important and something to accomplish that is worthwhile and worthy of my time.
  • A clear goal—I knew what I was striving for, I knew what was expected of me, and I was clear on the outcome, the vision, or the purpose.
  • Autonomy—I was given the freedom to use my talents and creativity to figure things out and take ownership of the project.
  • Accountability—the project had visibility; success or failure, I knew I was the one being held accountable.
  • Involvement—I felt connected and energized by my peer group; we motivated each other.

We asked this follow-up question: “What was the role of your leader in that experience?” Truth be told, respondents say the leader was the one who created the conditions—they were encouraged and empowered by their leaders, but they did the work themselves.

When asked, “How does your day-to-day experience align with the kind of leadership example that energized you?” most people acknowledged it did not align very well. Why is that the case? The reality is many mid-level leaders (those accountable for transforming the business) have developed a mindset that shapes what they think they need to be and do to be successful, which, unfortunately, works against what they want to accomplish most—engaging their people to produce excellence.

“”The biggest challenge for many mid-level leaders is to shift their mindset from ‘getting the work done through people’ to ‘getting the work done with people in a way that builds their ability to do it themselves.’

What Inhibits Leaders?

Let’s explore what inhibits leaders’ ability to fully engage others. Many mid-level leaders believe that since they are accountable for results—getting the job done right—they need to take charge, assign tasks, coordinate work, control the budget, and make all the key decisions. On one hand, this sounds pretty desirable, doesn’t it? A real take-charge leader.

We refer to this approach as Heroic Management. The leader views his or her purpose as achieving specific, short-term business objectives by getting the work done through people. The Heroic Manager feels he or she must have all the answers, be in control, be responsible for results and coordination, and control everything. As you can imagine, direct reports on the receiving end of this management style feel disempowered, devalued, demotivated, or simply comply, at best.

Moving Past the Heroic Mindset

Mid-level leaders must move past the Heroic Manager mindset and view themselves as Growth Leaders. Mid-level leaders need to understand that while they are still accountable for results, the best way to achieve those results is through sharing the responsibility for problem-solving, decision-making, and coordinating with the team they are leading. It requires mid-level leaders to shift their mindset from “getting the work done through people” to “getting the work done with people in a way that builds their ability to do it themselves.”

Additionally, mid-level leaders need to shift the source of their own fulfillment from being the superstar problem-solver to helping employees contribute to better solutions, leading to more individual growth and success. This is represented by the table to the right.

Imagine Growing Individuals and Transforming the Organization

Can you envision the mindset shift that must happen to go beyond just getting work done? The organization cannot grow without growing individuals. To grow individuals, leaders need to shift beyond simply thinking about results; it is both results and the way leaders connect individual talents with business needs that optimize the organization’s capability to implement strategy. The shift is a difficult challenge and, beware, the barrier to growth is the Heroic Manager mindset.

The challenge for L&D professionals is to help mid-level managers shift their mindset and skill set from Heroic Manager to Growth Leader. This means helping traditional leaders learn to let go, move on, and grow as leaders who engage others to perform at their best and gain a sense of fulfillment from their work.

Tom Roth

Tom Roth是Wilson Learning Worldwide Inc.(美国)的首席运营官和Wilson Learning Worldwide Inc.(日本)的总裁，他拥有40多年的人力绩效提升解决方案开发和实施的经验，负责Wilson Learnin全球集团的战略方向和业务绩效。此外，他还领导全球营销服务和解决方案研发部门，负责所有解决方案和价值主张白皮书的研发。他在员工敬业度、领导力发展、战略调整和业务转型相关领域，为全球的领导团队提供协助。在担任现任职务之前，他曾担任全球研发和解决方案研发部门总裁，也曾担任Wilson Learning Corporation的总裁。

Tom Roth在开发和实施人力绩效提升解决方案领域拥有丰富的经验。他合著了《如何使企业重新找回活力》（英文原文），《创建高性能团队》（英文）的，并在众多商业出版物上发表过文章。他是一位在国内、国际会议和客户活动上活跃的演讲者，涉及内容广泛，其中包括：领导力、员工参与度、变革和战略实施。