Much has been said about the importance of availability in leadership. I think we can all agree that it's no longer enough to sit in the corner office and dictate from afar through a series of procedures and processes. Neither is relying on title or authority a sustainable method of implementation. Effective, influenced-based leadership necessitates investing in relationships with those we rely on to execute on a daily basis. To build and improve effective teams, leaders know they must be available, but lately I've been exploring what it looks like to be available to my team, while still effectively accomplishing the work I need to do.
After much trial and error I've realized that availability is more than proximity or face-time. Similarly, we often incorrectly equate availability with interrupt-ability. This kind of absolute open-door leadership easily becomes inefficient and a time drain on everyone – our teams included. It robs us of productivity and our teams of the opportunity to become empowered, independent thinkers.
So, in search of greater availability, I dug deeper into the heart of what that word really means. When we break it down we find that availability is really about two key components: avail, or usefulness; and ability, aptitude or dexterity.
In the simplest terms, being available is about how good we are at making ourselves useful.
Naturally, this begs the question, what does being a useful leader look like? The beauty of leadership is that there is no one answer, but all great leaders know what it is for themselves and their team. Sure there are commonalities and patterns. Often useful leadership means providing vision and direction for the road ahead. Other times, it's leveraging our influence and resources not available to our teams to provide them with the opportunity to do better work. Whatever the situation, being useful as a servant leader is about setting up your team to be successful in the ways only you can.
Jeff Goins has put into place a practice that I really appreciate. He tells his teams to never ask him a question that they haven't already tried to find the answer to on their own. On the surface, this looks like he's making himself unavailable. The reality is exactly the opposite. By setting this standard for independent thinking and creating space to explore alternative possibilities, he's empowering his teams to be autonomously useful. In turn, he's maximizing his availability in the areas that matter most.
Availability is not measured in hours or meetings or team-builders. It's not a function of face-time or proximity. The most effective, and usually in turn most fulfilled, workers are those who are able to frequently operate in the space where they have the greatest impact. People feel better about themselves and their jobs when they believe the work they're doing matters. Being an available leader means providing those around us with the opportunity to do impactful, meaningful work.
So what does it mean for you to be a more available leader? How are you empowering your team to do more impactful work?
