Lead From Out Of The Way

by Tim Swanson

It’s what we do

As a leader, your job is to get people to do stuff. It may sound over simplistic, but it’s true. If you’re leading your children, your job is to get them to do things that will set them up for a successful life. If you’re a manager at a retail store, your job is to get your employees to provide exceptional customer service. If you’re a church leader, your job is ultimately to get people to invest in their relationship with Jesus, and share it with other people. And when you do your job well, it’s one of the most rewarding things in the world. Watching people succeed is liberating and empowering. But there’s also an inherent danger in leading that trips up a lot of teams. This hazard renders teams discouraged, frustrated, ineffective, and will eventually make them quit. The danger comes when leaders get in the way. Sometimes I get in the way of my team.

Controlling, annoying, micromanaging, in the way, leader

I lead MV Music, the music ministry at Moon Valley Bible Church in Phoenix, Az. And I feel very fortunate to have, what I consider to be, the best team on the planet. They are enthusiastic, skilled, driven men and women who work very hard at everything they do.

Last Saturday morning, I was in MV Music’s studio, with my recording engineer and drummer, setting up to record drums for a worship album that my team is working on right now. T.J., the drummer, and Mario, the recording engineer, were in the studio setting up for the session. T.J. was tweaking the drums getting each one to sound just right, while Mario was setting up microphones the rest of his recording hardware. And me - I was doing what comes naturally to me. I was leading. I was paying attention to the schedule, and trying to ask the right questions to keep us moving forward.

Here is a panorama of the studio. It's packed.
Now imagine it with me trying to muscle around in there.

In reality, I was just getting in the way. At one point I think I even tried to take something right out of Mario’s hands so that I could ‘help’ him with it. But T.J. and Mario were both more than capable of doing their jobs with excellence. While I was in there, I wasn’t leading. I was micromanaging. My presence was more of a burden than anything. Fortunately, I have some awareness of my tendency to be overbearing, so I can take steps to move out of the way when I begin hindering and annoying my team. It was a long and painstaking process to learn this about myself. But this morning, when I noticed myself starting to get in the way, I was able to step out of the room (literally). As I observed from the doorway, I quickly saw that they were just fine without me. In fact, they seemed to be doing better without me.

As leaders, it is certainly a big part of our job to find people’s giftedness and equip them to use it. And if you’re a good leader, then you’ll also desire to lead your team by serving them. But it’s essential that we gauge their progress, and step back when they are ready to stand on their own two feet. Otherwise one of two bad things is going to happen. First, as your team members trust you and look to you on how to act, you’re over managing will begin to signal to them that they do not have what it takes to rise to the occasion. Suddenly, you’re not helping people realize their potential. Instead you’re keeping them from seeing what they’re capable of. On the other side of the same coin, if your team members feel ready to spread their wings, but they feel oppressed by a micromanaging leader, they will become frustrated and give up or go somewhere else.

Leading from out of the way

We have to learn from the sidelines. Maybe you’re reading this right now and you aren't sure if you’re leadership is getting in the way of progress or not. If that’s the case, then there is a simple way to determine this for yourself. Ask people if you tend to over manage. Ask your team or your boss. Ask your spouse. Ask your friends. The best person for you is the one who will be most honest with you.

Then, if you’re like me and you tend to over lead. Look for opportunities to ‘step out of the room’. If your team is working on a project and they run into a problem, don’t immediately step in to help the with it. Tell them that you believe they have what it takes to overcome on their own. Then show them that you believe in them by stepping out of the way. If they get stalled, don’t try to bring your unique ideas to the table to get them unstuck. Encourage them by letting them know you believe in them. Then, try to get out of the way. Eventually, you’ll step out of the way and somebody is going to fall flat on their face. But sometimes that’s what needs to happen.

Yes, you have to be sensible about leading from out of the way. You don’t want to throw people under the bus by leaving them to face huge problems alone. Look for little opportunities to let them overcome adversity. As they succeed and learn from failure, they’ll get stronger. Then they'll be able to handle bigger things on their own.

Remember this. The success of the team isn’t determined by the effort of the leader, but by the hard work of the team members.