Learn to Treat Senior Leaders as a Resource and Not as an Authority

More seasoned, experienced, and senior leaders often get involved with matters across the organization. 

In their attempt to add value and make others more effective, they commonly direct traffic, issue orders, call for meetings, and create strategies for addressing problems. They jump right over those below them who operate the ship. In their desire to help and feel relevant, they often become more involved than they should be.  

Those below them on the organizational totem pole are sometimes caught between wanting to be respectful and insisting they are capable of running things without so much help. They do their best to offset and work around the directive actions of senior leaders who normally lack the context or expertise to actually make situations more effective. After a while, more junior leaders reluctantly accept this reality, bite their tongue, and endure the painful ride of an overbearing authority figure. 

But it doesn’t have to be this way.  

Accepting that senior leaders have the position, title, and authority to engage in a heavy-handed way of helping is surrendering to an ineffective framing of the problem and the person. Most senior leaders want to help, and crafty junior leaders can use that to keep them out of the soup (reserving that for when it is really needed). 

The more powerful tact with senior leaders is to treat them as a resource and ask them to do things that help the situation and the team below them. 

Asking senior leaders to play a specific role or to accomplish a particular task for the betterment of the team sounds like it might be taken poorly, but it rarely is. When explained with conviction and a detailed set of instructions, asking senior leaders to be a resource makes sense to them. 

Leaders want to help and will typically fall in line, enthusiastically doing what they now know will add the most value. By being asked to complete specific actions only they can perform, these leaders feel valued and relevant. Yes, they need to feel this, too! 

The key is to accomplish this frame and beat the senior leader to the starting line before a situation or project begins to unfold. Otherwise, the senior leader will likely begin asserting themselves and acting as if they are the savior. 

Once on this path, it is exceedingly difficult to distract them or to reframe their role. Training senior leaders by getting ahead of their instinct to get overly involved starts with asking them to serve as a resource. The more specific the ask, the better. 

When asked to be a resource to the team and to play a specific role, senior leaders are typically delighted to comply. They enjoy the respect they garner by assisting and direct their intrusive energy elsewhere. That’s a big win for everyone.