Vol 3

6.7 What Congruent Managers Do

Leadership is the ability to create an environment in which everyone is empowered to contribute creatively to solving the problems.

• offering positive reinforcement
• giving precise and clear instructions, and always being willing to clarify when they're not clear
• not constraining workers any more than is essential
• letting people fully explore the possibilities
• simplifying tasks whenever possible, yet making sure the tasks aren't insultingly easy
• making the time frames clear and giving the reasoning behind them
• paying attention to people's skills
• balancing the workload among all employees
• ensuring there is some real part for everyone to play
• teaching how to be supportive by being supportive of employees and of each other
• teaching how to trust by trusting each other and the customers
• remembering what it's like to be an employee and to be managed
• answering questions correctly and honestly to build trust
• getting good consulting advice and using it
• creating a vision of the problem and communicating it clearly to everyone
• providing organizational guidance whenever employees need it
• setting things up so people can experience early success
• not asking people to do things they aren't able or willing to do
• creating an environment in which it's okay to have fun