Approachability in Leadership

As part of a Live2Lead event a few years back, one of the speakers shared something they witnessed soon after accepting the top role in a new organization. Many of the executives arrived at the corporate headquarters into a private parking lot, entered through a secluded elevator, and went directly to their offices without having any interaction with anyone else working around them. To say there was a lack of approachability ingrained into that company’s culture would have been a huge understatement! That particular leader went on to share some of the things they implemented, over time, to address that issue and create an atmosphere that fostered approachability in leadership. I won’t share their story here, but we will work through some real life examples I’ve seen as we move forward and we’ll wrap this all up with some things we can each do to make sure our teams know that we’re truly approachable when they need us…

Think back to what we worked through recently about building leadership presence… Do we have any real chance of doing that if the team we’re responsible for leading doesn’t know, without a shadow of a doubt, that they can approach us with any issue that requires our attention or could use our support? (That’s one of those rhetorical questions in case you’re wondering…) In the entertainment industry, they call it stage presence. Think back to the comparison of Bret Michaels and those clowns standing on the boxes ten feet behind their fans that paid BIG BUCKS for their “VIP” package! The difference in presence was significant, I’d say as different as the distance… And I believe that ties directly back to approachability.

Let’s consider what that looks like in a scenario we can all relate to… In the nearly two decades I worked in manufacturing, we had a large meeting each quarter to update all employees on performance and the overall state of the business. This was historically a time where the management team had face time with employees and fielded  any questions they had, questions related directly to the updates that were shared as well as general questions about issues in the facility. Near the end of my time there, we saw a massive change in management team personnel. Several of the new managers had come from the same company and had a very different approach to interacting with employees - meaning they didn’t do it… In addition to keeping their office doors closed the majority of the time, they also changed the structure of those quarterly meetings. They still held the meetings but rather than blocking an hour for each business unit on each shift, they held one 30-minute meeting on each shift where they corralled everyone on the shift into a storage area on the far end of the building (that was hot in the summer and cold in the winter). Instead of accepting questions, like had been done for close to fifty years prior, the plant manager only addressed a handful of questions that had been submitted in advance and screened by his entourage. When the 30 minute timer went off, the management team turned off the lights and left the building…

Truth be told, those meetings didn’t end quite that abruptly - but that wouldn’t have given the employees in the meetings a very different impression from how they really ended. Nothing about those meetings, which had previously been a great opportunity for the management team to connect with employees, gave an impression that any one of those new managers were the least bit approachable! And I’ll let you decide for yourself how it impacted their leadership presence…

As a quick side story, the plant manager running that three-ring circus actually started his career in the same company the Live2Lead speaker shared about, but he clearly moved on (or got moved on?) before that fellow became CEO and turned the culture around!

Here’s the thing, I’m convinced it’s not a matter of who we are or what we’ve been taught to this point. Approachability in leadership is critical, it’s something we can all develop, and our teams will need it to see that from us in order to connect with us in a way that establishes the leadership presence we’ve looked at leading up to this point. One thing we can do to begin developing this is to make sure we have an approachable personality!

More Than Just in Meetings…

Even if that plant manager I just referenced had been willing to pretend to be the slightest bit personable in those employee meetings and actually engage the team by accepting a question or two, that would have only served as a starting point! He still would have needed to develop some personal connection with those folks outside of that quarterly meeting setting to have any shot of earning real buy-in. That said, the only times I ever knew him to go anywhere near the shop floor was with the majority of the managers reporting directly to him during what they called a “Gemba Walk.” 

In theory, a Gemba Walk is “an activity that takes management to the front lines to look for waste and opportunities for continuous improvement.” While that’s a reasonable concept, it’s not quite as impactful if it’s the only time your feet hit the shop floor and you need a map to find any given work area, even after more than a year at the facility. OK, I may be exaggerating that manager's floor presence slightly - but I’m absolutely on point with his lack of connection with the team members on that shop floor!

Just for comparison, the plant manager when I started with that company nearly twenty years prior made it a routine part of his day to walk through the facility and interact with employees. As you can imagine, there was a huge difference in the level of leadership presence those two had with their respective teams… One being extremely approachable and the other attempting to play the role of some dignitary surrounded by their personal security…

I remember hearing John Maxwell tell a story about being a child and walking across the college campus where his dad worked. He said it always seemed like it took HOURS because his dad stopped to talk with everyone! I connected with that so well because that was something I experienced just about every time I went somewhere with my dad. It seemed like everyone knew him and everyone wanted to say hello.

It’s interesting to see how things come full circle. Our son has told me the same thing, “is there anyone in this town that you don’t know?” Yes, plenty… But I’ve worked really hard to get to know a bunch of people, and to treat them well enough that they actually don’t mind talking with me when we see one another. (And that in itself could be a whole separate message!)

Here’s the thing; if we really want to develop a strong and effective leadership presence, we need to be an approachable leader. We might be able to fake it a distance, or even from a large stage, with some of the people some of the time but we won’t create a true lasting leadership presence unless we’re extremely intentional about being approachable. And to be an approachable leader, we need to develop an approachable personality!

When we take that one step, our walks through the crowd take a bit longer but the interaction we’re able to have is much more valuable. As we wrap this up, we’ll look at something we can expect to see as a result when we put all this together - and how it impacts our overall leadership presence. Right now though, know that approachability in meetings matters but a truly approachable personality requires quite a bit more - and gets way better results!

Even a Big Company Can Feel Like a Family Business!

For at least a decade now, I've maintained that having a family business culture is far more about creating the right environment than how many people work at a given location or how far away the corporate headquarters is. Quite frankly, that all ties back to a strong leadership presence - which in turn ties back to the people in leadership roles (at least a few of them) having approachable personalities!

I’m not just saying that… In my career to this point, I’ve seen companies with over a thousand people in one location have an atmosphere that felt like a family business. Unfortunately, I saw that same facility go through a change in management and feel like a stuffy, corporate sweatshop, even with less than half the employees. I’ve also seen actual family owned businesses with less than a hundred employees where very few members of the rank and file workforce had the slightest connection with the owners or management team.

I’ll let you decide for yourself which of those got the most employee referrals for new team members and which had the highest turnover… Just in case you need a hint, consider which you’d rather be a part of… If you’re still not sure, think for a minute who you’d be more excited to introduce your family members to; the owner/manager you have a strong relationship with or the one you only see or hear from when they decide to scold their minions about a dip in productivity that could impact their own annual bonus?

As I think back over the last twenty-five years or so, the most engaging leaders I’ve had the chance to work around and study have also been the ones who had developed a strong leadership presence. It just so happens that they were also the ones who were also approachable - even when they had crazy demands on their time. Think back to the two I mentioned before who blocked time to work in various parts of the facility. Neither were ever my direct boss but both knew my family and I still interact with both of them routinely today, and it’s been more than a decade since I’ve worked in the same building with either of them!

When we engage our teams, establish that thing called leadership presence, and we build on that by being an approachable leader that our team members know they can come to when they need our support, we earn the kind of influence that just can’t be found by throwing out big sign-on bonuses or using sticky taglines that aren’t backed by action. Leading our teams cannot be done from a distance and we cannot mail it in when it comes to engaging our teams - not if we want an authentic leadership presence with that team or the results that come from it!