Thoughts on Leadership: Drive

Drive:

Drive is how a manager gets things done. It is important that every manager knows how to drive a project to completion, how to support employees, and how to drive one’s own actions. Without adequate and natural drive, a manager will struggle in his or her daily job. Drive can also have a downside, so every manager needs to focus on the positive aspects of having well focused drive and being assertive.

Determined. Every manager needs to be determined. They need to have an internal drive to stay positive and stay on-task. As with many managers, each day is different; challenges have to be faced when they arise, projects have to be completed, and employees must be motivated and developed. Without determination a manager will just sit at his or her’s desk and do the bare minimum rather than driving himself or herself to success.

Focus on the process as much as the end result. Sometimes when managers drive a project they do whatever is needed to get the end result. Being able to deliver a project on-time is important but getting it done correctly is even more important. This does not mean that a project should be paused or stopped due to analysis paralysis but your team needs to be able to reflect on the progress of the project to ensure that outcomes are what leadership and the institution need and want. One of the largest rollout failures of the last decade, Heathcare.gov occurred very publicly and is a cautionary tale for every manager and leader.

Have a clear vision and strategy for the team. One of the worst situations for a team, a department, or an institution is to not have a clear vision and strategy. Without a vision and strategy every employee is just doing a bunch of work without a clear end game and not helping the institution improve. Truly excellent managers are able to focus on and support the overriding strategy and clearly communicate the vision to employees through words and actions.

Be purposeful. Every manager has to be purposeful in their actions and what they assign their employee to do. Much like having a clear vision and strategy, what you have your employees work on needs to be purposeful. In the same respect, what you do day in and day out needs to be purposeful and align to the mission and purpose of of your team, department, and institution.

Be resilient. This might sound odd because we all try to be resilient but this is important. No matter what happens a manager needs to get back up and try again, motivate his or her’s employees, and brush off the dust. This resilience is especially important when you are getting feedback from multiple people, multiple stakeholders, getting pushback from employees, and everything seems to be going wrong. You have to be resilient by listening to feedback that will help you improve, from leadership, peers, or employees, and move forward in a positive, unbiased, and productive manner.

Get some wins. We all need wins. As we work day in and day out struggles will arise and criticism, both constructive and unhelpful, will fly around the office. It is important as a manager to get some wins and share credit with the team because it will help with confidence, engagement, and motivation of everyone involved.

Measure well. Measure well is difficult. Officially, you have to assess your employees’ performance based on the agreed measuring tools as decided on by leadership and HR. But beyond that, there is the daily and weekly measuring that we all experience when we do our jobs, complete projects, and do our jobs. Every manager needs to be fair, open, and honest about how they measure their employees by clearly communicating expectations and constantly updating employees about their progress and helping them succeed.

Be productive and results-oriented. Much like being focused on the process as much as the end result, being productive and result-oriented is key for any manager. Managing people is about just that, people and ensuring that they are being productive, doing their jobs, and contributing to the greater institutional good. Focusing on results is important because as a manager, you do not want to waste institutional resources by your employees not focusing daily on the mission and goals of the institution.

Accountability. Everyone is accountable. In everything we do we are accountable to someone. Even if you are self-employed you are accountable to your customers to ensure that you will continue to be self-employed. As a manager, we are accountable to our boss and it is our job to hold our employees accountable for the work they do. The largest portion of a manager’s job is to help and support employees so they can do their jobs and contribute positively and productively to the mission and purpose of the institution.