I had a communications professor who almost killed me by pushing me further than I ever thought possible. What I did not realise at the time was that he saw promise in me and worked to make it reality.
Dr Fink was an illustrious professor who had a reputation for making his students better, no matter how painful the process was. I must admit he was the professor whom I, and many other students, had a dichotomous relationship with – going from nearly hating him because he was tough to respecting him because of the result, being better than we believed possible.
From day one in his class you knew exactly what was expected as his detailed syllabus explained precisely what it would take to succeed in his class. We had to make 13 peer-reviewed speeches in one semester, one per week. In addition to the pressure coming from speaking in front of the other students who were evaluating you, Dr Fink was doing the same. He sat in a booth in the back of the classroom videotaping each speech and commented throughout it on a split channel highlighting what you were doing right, which was usually minimal comments, doing wrong, and what was needed to improve.
When class was over, I would go into the review room, with a box of tissues, and listen to what he said. It was excruciatingly painful, but I absorbed every word he said and worked to make the improvements. After sweating through the semester, I passed with an A.
You may be wondering why I am telling this story about my communication professor Dr Fink embodied in the classroom what leaders need to do on the job: it is your responsibility to make your team better – help them to become the best they can.
Here are the leadership lessons we can learn from this story. The first thing leaders do to help their employees become the best possible, is to make it very clear what is wanted from them. Make your expectations clear and understandable so each of your employees know exactly what it will take to succeed. In the classroom good professors make it very clear what it takes to get an A. Do you employees know exactly what it takes to be a high-performer?
Be careful not to assume that because they have key performance indicators that they know. Establishing KPIs rarely translates into clarity. Clear success criteria needs to come to life every working day, not just during the performance management cycle.
The next leadership lesson we can learn is that you need to work to get maximum performance out of every one of you employees. The leader is responsible for how their employees perform. Take pride when they do well; conversely, when they don’t then be accountable. Don’t blame them rather help them to succeed.
What we are saying is, in the same manner that a great professor helps his students get the A, leaders are to help the team become high performers. The professor is focused on what the student will learn and achieve. As a leader you need to focus on how your team works and making them better. Spend time giving feedforward, future-oriented feedback, to help them improve.
If you do your job as a leader correctly, at the end of the year you should see tangible evidence that they are better, getting the proverbial A.
While a student, there were many days when I hated this professor. However, later in life I realised how thankful I am for the way he pushed and developed me. I am who I am today in part because of him.
Who are you making better?
Tommy Weir is a leadership advisor, author of 10 Tips for Leading in the Middle East and other leadership writings and the founder of the Emerging Markets Leadership Center
