Leading from the Bridge

There is no way to avoid it.  The bigger the organization, the more time you have to spend on the bridge.  I am not a nautical expert, but I have had the privilege of serving very closely with my Navy brethren for two years and I think that the idea of the ship’s bridge is a good one for helping us address the tension inherent to moving up the ladder of responsibility and leadership.

In smaller units and smaller organizations it is less challenging to be out on the floors or decks meeting with and talking with the people who actually turn the dials and move the gears of the organization’s machinery.  No matter how large the organization, a leader can never afford the luxury of completely isolating him or herself from that.  We must get out and talk with staff on a regular, predictably frequent basis.

Although we have to “lead from everywhere” (Admiral Thad Allen) we cannot be everywhere.   The ship is commanded from it’s bridge.  For most of us, the equivalent is our office.  How can demonstrate effective and compassionate leadership from the bridge, and use the “view from the bridge” to help us lead from everywhere?

Keep the inbox empty.  As we talked about a few months back, an empty inbox is an executive’s core competency.  There are very often people attached to the documents stacking on our office or computer desktops, and the people are waiting for their paperwork to return and their issues to be resolved.  Our timeliness is a reflection to them of our dedication to them as individuals.

Answer email.  A quick, “Thank you,” with your initials takes seconds but goes a long way to acknowledging the person who sent the message; a person who is too often left wondering nervously waiting to see what “the Boss” thinks of an idea or feedback.

Develop your personal COMMPLAN (Communication Plan.) Much of your organization will only know you through your messaging.  Only some will get to know you in person.  Some may never even meet you.  How will you communicate with them?  An intentional COMMPLAN will allow you to mix group email, video messages, focus groups, town halls, electronic social media feedback sessions into a strategic matrix to effectively communicate with both internal and external “customers.”

Use Outlook to know subordinates.  As you begin each new job, work with your support staff to put the birthdays of your direct reports and their family members into your Outlook calendar.  One practical way to do this is to ask each of your reports to send you their Outlook “Business Card” which you or your staff can move electronically into your Contacts list, and ask them to include in the notes section the names and birthdays of their spouse or significant others and children.  It helps you to get to know them and to reinforce what really matters.

Use the phone and email to mentor from a distance.  Keep a list of people with whom you have had a mentoring relationship, review the list often and send an email or schedule a quick phone call with these individuals at regular intervals.  Block “mentor time” onto the calendar every week or so and use the time creatively to reach out to younger staff.  We grow as leaders too, as we take the time to learn from them.

Don’t keep people waiting. Time is the single greatest thing we can respect for our peers and subordinates.  There are very few other resources so valuable primarily because there are none so finite.  Set your watch five minutes ahead.  (But try not to look at it at all when you are talking or listening to someone.)  Position a clock in your office so that you can see it from where you sit without having to look away from the person with whom you are meeting.  Ask your secretary (if you have one) to watch your schedule and to open your door slightly when you get within the last minutes of a scheduled meeting.  Don’t book meetings back to back if you have to travel between them.  Time, energy and focus are finite for you and those with whom you work.  Respect time and you respect them.

Get out from behind the desk.  An old friend challenged me on this nearly twenty years ago.  “You know when I come to our office to talk you don’t look up from your email?”   When someone stops by, come out from behind your desk, swing over to a place in the room where you can both sit eye to eye and talk.

Treat assistants with respect.  Everyone who comes to see you meets your secretary or assistant first.  They are the first impression you leave with everyone.  Having the right person on your phone and at the desk outside your office is crucial and worth really thinking through.  And they are much more likely to reflect you favorably when you treat them with the respect they deserve.  It is both pragmatically and philosophically the right thing to do.

Focus on what’s in front of you: person, place or thing. Turn the sound off on your computer so you are not distracted by incoming mail while you are trying to focus on the task or person in front of you.  Turn off the email buzzer on your Blackberry so you are not distracted in meetings or in conversations.  Our hospital uses voice activated communication devices which can be equally disruptive.  Avoid “crowd scanning” when you are talking to someone in a large group.  Discipline yourself to look directly into the eyes of the one you are listening to and then only look up to scan when that conversation ends.

The foundational leadership competencies include: reading, writing, rounding and rhetoric.  Rounding means that we have to practice “management by wandering around.”  This essential of leadership has been attributed to Lincoln during his leadership of the Civil War and was recognized as an essential practice by Tom Peters in his 1982 book, “In Search of Excellence.”  Regardless, we will still end up spending a lot of time “on the bridge;” in our office, behind our computer screens.

But being on the bridge doesn’t mean that we stop having to lead.

What lessons have you learned about about leading from the bridge?  Leave a comment with your thoughts…

Chuck Callahan  Henry V 4.3 – Lead from the Front  https://henryv43.wordpress.com/