Spring Cleaning for Leaders: Get Rid of What Isn’t Working

The key to spring cleaning is to be ruthless! Throw out anything and everything you never use. (Or that may be incriminating. Burn, if necessary.)

—Josie Brown

 

Spring Cleaning for Leaders isn’t just a clever idea—it’s a necessary mindset shift for anyone serious about leadership growth. Much like the beginning of a new year, the arrival of spring often inspires people to make a fresh start. Particularly when we hit the first “open windows” day of the calendar year (before the stifling humidity and mosquitoes arrive in full force!), many of us take the opportunity to air out our homes and do some deep cleaning. As part of my own spring clean, I pay particular attention to my closets. If I haven’t worn something for a while, out it goes! My closet space is limited (and I need to be sure there’s plenty of room for my Mardi Gras ensembles!), so if something is no longer working for me, I’m not keeping it around.

 

During my years in the corporate world, I found that a “spring cleaning for leaders” approach was useful there as well. Too often, I encountered the phrase “but that’s how I’ve always done it” when trying to figure out or resolve something that wasn’t quite working. Traditions and longstanding practices are fine (and can be lovely elements of a positive company culture), but when they become obstacles to innovation, improvement, and success, they’re not any better than the unworn clothes that have been taking up space in the back of your closet for the past decade.

 

When you take the time to review your leadership style periodically, you’ll have a much better awareness of where the shortcomings and problems lie. By culling what doesn’t work, you make more room for what does—and what will enable you to be the best leader you can be.

 

Where Did All This Stuff Come From?

 

It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.

—John Wooden

 

No one develops their individual leadership style in a vacuum. To a degree, we’re all subject to outside influences. For example, during your childhood, the leadership style of the adults around you (such as your parents, teachers, neighbors, religious community leaders, coaches, and other relatives) shaped your upbringing. Depictions of leaders in movies, television shows, books, social media, etc.—all of those, too, have influenced what you think leadership should (or shouldn’t) be. 

 

And of course, don’t forget about your employment history. Every terrible boss you’ve had showed you how not to lead. (How many times have you been frustrated or angered by a supervisor’s actions and swore to yourself, “When I’m in charge, I definitely won’t do that”?)

Likewise, every great boss you’ve had gave you inspiration and ideas for the kind of leader you aspire to be.

 

I’m not saying that you aren’t responsible for creating your own leadership style. Ultimately, you are in charge of determining how you want to lead. But I do think it’s important to acknowledge that we often start our leadership journeys by following someone else’s playbook. Eventually, you figure out your own ways of doing things, but it can take a while to shake generic or hand-me-down legacy approaches that aren’t really working for you and replace them with practices that you’ve curated for your own unique situation.

 

Assess What You’re Doing Now 

 

 Leadership is an action, not a position.

—Donald McGannon

 

Just as you need to clean out your closet before you can start filling it with new stuff, you need to figure out which leadership habits are outdated and need to go before you can start to focus on assembling a new “wardrobe” of effective leadership practices. Think about the habits that have been in place since you moved into your first leadership role. Maybe back then your approach needed to hit certain notes in order to get noticed. But now that you’re more experienced, more skilled, and more adept at fulfilling leadership functions, maybe some of those practices no longer have a place in your repertoire.

 

Over-scheduling yourself. You may think you’re cultivating a reputation as a “go getter,” but you won’t impress anyone when your back-to-back meetings and fully booked calendar make it hard for you to fulfill your own commitments and leave you no time to think (and one thing is certain – to think strategically takes time!). It’s also not a good precedent if your employees (or boss!) can never get on your calendar because it’s jammed. 

 

Celebrating hustle over results. On a similar note, don’t expect your employees to maintain a frenetic pace, either. Yes, you want them to hustle and be proactive. But when that approach overshadows (or even interferes with) their ability to deliver, then that hustle is nothing more than bluster that leaves everyone feeling exhausted—and doesn’t actually get the job done. Sure, it may work in the short-term, but long-term projects suffer because of burnout and that “in-the-moment” hustle mentality.

 

Micromanaging. There was a time when scrutinizing every single thing employees did was lauded as the mark of a great manager. Fortunately, times have changed, and we now know that the most engaged and effective employees tend to be the ones who are trusted (and empowered) by their managers to get their jobs done. 

 

Keeping underperformers around too long. If someone isn’t doing their job up to par, you need to intervene. Coaching, feedback, and training are some of the tools you can use to help someone improve their performance. But if someone is unable or (even worse) unwilling to work to meet the requirements of their role, keeping them around does more harm than good, and you need to be prepared to part ways with them.

 

Prioritizing availability over effectiveness. Don’t assign a task to Steve just because he has open time in his schedule when you know that Susan is much more qualified to take it on. Steve might be able to start the project right away, but there’s a good chance he won’t complete it on time or to spec—or both. Part of good leadership is knowing how to use your assets wisely, and if Susan is undeniably the best candidate for a task, you’re better off waiting for her so you know you’ll get the best results. (And in the meantime, find something else for Steve to do that is a better match for his own strengths including moving something from Susan to Steve!)

 

Relying on outdated metrics for success. Look at the long-term goals of your team, department, and organization, then look at how progress toward those goals is currently measured. Do you think those metrics accurately reflect the effectiveness of your efforts and their outcomes? Metrics shift according to industry trends, organizational needs, global markets—a whole host of factors. Don’t cling to outdated metrics that no longer serve as useful tools for driving organizational success.

 

Make Room for New Priorities

 

Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing.

—Mary D. Poole

 

Now that you’ve removed the clutter from your metaphorical closet of leadership habits, it’s time to fill in those spaces with practices that will better serve you (and your team) in today’s workplace! Since the old-school approach of “I’m going to tell you exactly what to do, watch you like a hawk while you do it, and immediately bring the hammer down on you if you let me down in any way” fell by the wayside decades ago, leadership has evolved to include more elements of trust, encouragement, and compassion.

 

As you think about what fresh practices you want to incorporate into your own leadership style, consider how to leverage your EQ (emotional intelligence) to develop and implement practices that build competence, community, trust, and great culture. Look at some of the most effective leadership practices today: creating space for innovation; setting goals; recognizing progress (and not focusing solely on perfection); building trust-based accountability; being flexible and adaptable; etc. Identify what these practices mean to you and to your team—then figure out how to put your own unique spin on them to make them as appropriate as possible for your context.

 

Remember: as a leader you should strive to be an authority, not an authoritarian. Rather than dictate a “do or die” course of action to your employees, take into consideration their needs, preferences, responsibilities, goals, etc. When you listen to your employees, you end up filling your leadership “closet” with new ideas and practices that work with your current leadership role—who you are, who your team members are, what their skills and goals are, etc.—instead of trying to squeeze everyone into the same outdated one-size-fits-all outfit from a decade ago.

 

Keep Your Leadership Fresh 

 

What I know for sure is that when you declutter—whether it’s your home, your head, or your heart—it is astounding what will flow into that space that will enrich you, your life, and your family.

—Peter Walsh

 

When something is no longer working for you, it’s time to get rid of it. This is generally sound advice that applies to a whole host of situations, such as spring cleaning your closets and ending bad relationships. It works for approaches to leadership, too. When you hold on to leadership practices that aren’t moving you closer to your goals, that’s just as bad as holding on to a pair of pants that you will never wear again.

 

If whatever you’re doing isn’t getting you closer to your professional goals (and maybe is even making you lose some of your progress), why in the world would you keep on doing it? Adopting a spring cleaning approach to your leadership style will help you identify the habits, behaviors, and strategies that are no longer serving you or your team—and then eliminate (or modify) them to make way for better practices.

 

If you’ve had positive results by intentionally eliminating an element of your leadership style that was no longer working for you, please share your experience in the comments below!