By Gord Collins

People want to be managed and led differently! Whether you agree or disagree with this statement, consider your own situation. How satisfied are you? What aspects of the way in which you are managed and led do you value and appreciate? Which aspects don't work well for you? Are there additional aspects that are missing or you would like to explore further? How much time and attention have you given to the above questions? More importantly, have you had meaningful and productive conversations with your manager about these? How about your employees, have they had these conversations with you?

This paper provides managers with an opportunity to reflect on conversations they can have with their employees to awaken their 'sleeping' initiatives'.

Assigning Responsibility or Taking Responsibility

A fundamental question is: Do you assign responsibility to your direct reports or do they initiate and take responsibility? The whole domain of responsibility is fertile ground, both for reflection and for revealing opportunities for managers to coach. If we work backwards from the outcome of our direct reports taking initiative and responsibility, we can observe the following;

• first, when we see people taking responsibility and initiative, we are witnessing their will - their commitment in action.
• second, this commitment is also revealing of their relationship to, and their alignment with, the mission or vision of the team.

Responsibility can be seen as simply the task to be performed. However, its essential nature lies in the quality of the attention and commitment given to achieving the task. The coaching challenge is to awaken the will of the team members and ensure sufficient alignment with the teams mission and objectives.

How are you doing in awakening initiative in your team members? Consider a cross section of your direct reports as you read the following.

Creating the Expectation for Others to Take Initiative- Setting the Context

What would your direct reports say their expectation is, regarding how responsibilities are developed and agreed upon within your work unit?

1. Do they expect you, as their manager, to develop and assign their work responsibilities, or do they see this as part of their own responsibility? Have you had a conversation to set expectations?
2. Do their actions line up with these expectations? i.e. are they waiting for you to provide direction or are they initiating, proposing, etc.?
3. What other actions can you take to encourage them to take initiative?

Eliciting Commitment - Beyond Compliance

Once the expectation has been set to take initiative, we must prepare ourselves to receive their proposals. When listening to their proposals you may find yourself having different kinds of reactions ranging from surporse at the degree of creativity and personal investment to concerns about practicality and likelihood of success. We will address two common scenarios you may encounter-proposals that you assess as naïve and proposals that differ from youy way of doing things!

When you assess their proposal as being limited or insufficient how are you likely to respond? You have a choice. You can react (let your actions flow out of the judgments you have made) or you can act with an aim to help them realize the shortcomings of their proposal. Questions such as 'How will your proposal take care of scenario 'B'?' or, 'I see how this addresses 'X' but help me see how it will address 'Y'?' can be helpful to ensure that they have covered the bases, or to extend their thinking and reveal gaps and incongruities. These 'gaps' can become the trigger for moments of insight. Stay with them in the conversation, encouraging them to think out loud with you until a proposal emerges that you can both say yes to. Remember our aim is to awaken their will to act and commit to a plan of action that inspires them and satisfies our criteria for effective action in the particular situation. By approaching their new initiatives in this way you are coaching them for both performance and development. Without development some levels of performance just aren't attainable. Also, notice any thoughts and feelings you now have after holding back your initial urges to react and instead actively supported someone else to take a risk and break through to a new level of performance!

Another moment of truth arises when a proposal to do something is put forward that is not the way you would do it! Again, stop and consider how you respond to ideas and opinions that differ from your own? You will probably notice that you have a range of reactions. What is of particular interest are those reactions that are 'automatic', that occur below the threshold of consciousness. How can you become more mindful in these situations, so that you can consciously choose to act, versus simply re-act! One question that can be helpful here is to ask yourself 'Which am I more committed to - the outcome, or to my preferred way of getting there?' In the end, would you prefer to have someone acting out of commitment to his or her proposal or out of compliance to yours?

Implementing initiatives - Are you Supporting or Controlling?

Having elicited a commitment, we are now in the critical phase of implementation. How will you support your employee's new initiative? Have you had a conversation about what support looks like? Often the support received is not the same as the support that was expected! The conversation for support is often overlooked, assumed that it is already understood or spoken of in broad general terms that lead to the breakdown above - not meeting the employee's expectations. New initiative takers often haven't thought through all the support they will need - nor in many cases could they have. Anticipating and articulating support is crucial, both in advance as well as throughout the course of the initiative. In our role as managers, we also need to have assurance that the initiative is on track and we are kept informed of new developments. In our efforts to stay on top of things we will likely check in to see how things are going, either informally or formally through regular status meetings. While we see our intention to be supportive, it is surprising how often this activity is viewed with suspicion. "Why are they always checking up on me?", "Don't they trust me?", "Don't they have anything better to do?" This questioning of our motives is usually the result of our not having had clear conversations for support early in the process. Having these support conversations up front can mean the difference between being perceived as controlling or providing real value in the support that you offer.

Completion - the Ending as a Transition Point to a New Beginning

Completion is an opportunity to assess accomplishments, celebrate success, review disappointments and harvest learning. There is a particular kind of vulnerability that a new initiative taker experiences. Regardless of the degree of success, it is important what conclusions the employee draws from this experience. Our folk wisdom says 'once burnt, twice shy!' What this phrase doesn't show is that it is not only the experience but also the meaning we derive from the experience that will have a significant impact on future action, in this case, taking further initiatives. If the initiative is successful we can let the employee bask in their success. The feeling of an accomplishment is significantly enhanced when shared with others - especially with one's manager! It is quite common for accomplishment to fuel the desire for the next, bolder accomplishment.

On the other hand, if the results fell short of expectations, then we need to assist the employee in 'managing the interpretation'. This means we need to take care of how the employee makes sense out of the results. Observe whether they are opening or closing possibilities for themselves. If they are opening possibilities, then encourage them to the point where they can see new actions they can take. If they are closing possibilities, then challenge their interpretation. Will they convince you that they can't do it, or will you inspire them so that they can?