I’ve worked long enough as a leadership consultant to believe that people generally want to succeed in their jobs. The satisfaction of a job well done is a huge motivator. That’s why once your team starts to believe in you as a leader and begins to connect and align with your vision, a key next step as an effective leader is to remove barriers to success and then get the heck out of the way. It’s a leader’s job to police the road to remove roadblocks instead of throwing them in the way of their employees. I think this is part of the reason that some of the organizations that are celebrated for their employee retention and satisfaction are notable for their ability to identify problems yet focus on the solutions. The leaders in these organizations understand the importance of walking the talk. Clarity of vision is great, but to truly get your team engaged around the vision, you must remove barriers. This shows your team that you appreciate their support and that you are holding up your end of the deal by helping them make the vision a reality. In the bigger scheme of things, leaders remove barriers to success by ensuring that employees have sufficient autonomy, the necessary technological resources and support, and training to develop their knowledge base.
I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal about Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of Italy’s Fiat and America’s Chrysler. I was particularly struck by a quote during the interview that when he took over as the CEO of Fiat, he “removed all obstacles of efficiency.” The article goes on to explain that Mr. Marchionne did this in part by ignoring the usual practice of new CEOs in struggling companies of firing workers and closing factories. Mr. Marchionne instead opted to fire executives. Those executives were probably barriers to the high performance of the organization. I believe his decision was a great signal to the organization that he was going to “engage” his team and execute on his vision of success. Mr. Marchionne made real the expression, “where the rubber meets the road.” He decisively removed barriers to the future success of his company in the form of obsolete and top-heavy management. I believe that this is exactly the type of decisive action that serves to engage your employees and optimize performance.
