Many Parts, One Body
As I have progressed down this beautiful path of being a loving leader, some things became evident along the way. One of those things was that as I continued to advance in rank, I realized that I didn’t get here independently. The sad part about this realization is that we often don’t come to appreciate people that have supported us until after we have left the position or after people have moved on.
With that said, I want to talk about those people that made me a successful leader. The analogy of many parts, one body is Biblical, referring to believers in Christ, but the concept is the same for the teams we lead. Think about the whole of your team as the human body. Like the different parts of the human body, every individual is vital to the efficiency and success of the team. Can you get through life in a wheelchair without having use of your legs? Absolutely, but having strong legs gives you access to places that a person in a wheelchair might find more difficult or even impossible to reach. You won’t find anything more efficient than having all body parts working together at full capacity.
My wife and I recently spoke about the American education system and how students lose confidence when they do tasks or take tests that they don’t grasp. This was my personal experience in high school. I was, and still am, terrible with any type of math, chemistry, and physics. My brain does not function that way. Yet, every time I came home with a 70 on the report card, I would feel disappointment for not performing as well as my mom thought I could. I felt like a complete failure. I’m sure you’re wondering what that has to do with leadership.
One of the flaws that I have seen in many leaders, including myself, is that we want to put people in situations that will take them entirely out of their element. It is good to have these types of exercises to build others, but I question the wisdom of perpetually giving individuals tasks that don’t play to their strengths in the name of trying to make them better. Are you helping them develop? Maybe, but why aren’t we leveraging individual strengths in our teams? Why, as leaders, do we do to our subordinates what has made us frustrated in the past? Efficiency and mission accomplishment will come much easier when you let your team members display their different talents.
With that said, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the overuse of some of our best performers. Leaders want the job done right, and we want it done right now, so we go to the same person because they are dependable. Stop doing that and give other people a chance. I want to challenge you to explore the strengths and weaknesses of your team and provide the person you have already written off as a mediocre performer a task that will allow them to shine. You just might find that you were the roadblock to success, not them.
Remember, each body part has a specific function. As many people can attest, if one part of the body is injured, your body will compensate, but it will cause an imbalance or injury to other parts. If you look at your team from this perspective, you’ll see that you might be burning some people out and alienating others. As for me, I tried to be the skull that protected the brain that allowed the body to function efficiently. I wasn’t the most critical part of the body, but I knew my role in maintaining a healthy body.
~Rey