Axiom #7: No Surprises

When you begin to read the available literature on leadership one of the themes you will grasp pretty quickly is that there are several ways to break down leadership styles. It is defined by personality, habits, technique, behavior, expectations and any number of other means. One way I feel you can “caricature leadership” is by the tension between being a micro manager as opposed to a more permission giving styled leader.

Let me be honest here, this is one of my personal pet peeves. It is the one item in leadership that sets me off more quickly than any other. And in my present ministry/leadership/management position where we are funded in large part with Federal dollars via a grant, it is a personal struggle. My wife could tell you many stories about my rants regarding this issue. It is the exact same thing I resist in denominational structures in church. But that is another story entirely.

As a way of introducing this, let me relay three stories.

In the mid 80’s to early 90’s while I was still working bi-vocationally in ministry and corporate, I recall working with my superior, the General Manger of the private company. He was the only person above me in the entire company, and oddly enough I had his ear on things relating to our business and I had his trust. I will call him George . . . well, because that is his name. He told me in one meeting, “Terry, one of the things I like the best about working with you, is that once I ask you to do something, or assign you a task, I can totally forget about it. It will get done. I will not hear from you unless, you either need my assistance in some way or the task is complete. Terry, you make me look good.”

As I look back on that incident, that quite possibly is the highest praise I have ever received from an employer. This Axiom will help understand why.

In a later position I was relatively new and still refining my working relationship with my senior colleague. After about 3 to 4 months, I was feeling micromanaged. I recall going into his office and asking for a few minutes. I then closed the door and relayed what I was experiencing at his hand. I then said something to this effect. “I am not saying that you are wrong or you should change or you do not have the right to manage in whatever style you desire. I am not passing any sort of value judgment on you. You have the right to manage as you see fit. What I am saying is that if that is how you desire to manage me, you have the wrong guy, and I need to begin looking at how to make a transition. He apologized for appearing to do this and we never had a struggle with it again. We had other heated discussions on style, philosophy or details but I continued to prove my worth, my loyalty and my support of him as my boss.

Third story. A subsequent superior was guilty of a similar thing, the exact details of which are not important. I said to him, “Let me tell you a story.” I then relayed the above incident. He said, “I get your point,” and the issue was closed and was never a problem.

Now, if you stop reading at this point and do not complete this Axiom, please forget everything you read above. It is totally worthless without what I am about to say.

In each meeting above I told my supervisor something to this effect. I will not surprise you. I will keep you on a “need to know” basis . . . in the best use of that phrase. I will make absolutely sure you know anything and everything you need to know. If there is anything that may come back on you, I will tell you. If there is anything that is a ministry/company impacting issue, you will know. I will make sure you hear everything that is taking place that you need to hear. You do not need to be involved in the minutia of operations in my job. And you really do not want to be I am sure. But I promise you I will make sure you do know everything you need to know. If I have a doubt, I will tell you. It may be a 2-minute hall meeting. It may be a scheduled ninety minute sit down meeting. But you will know. You may not hear from me on items for weeks on end. Do not take that to mean anything. It means things are running as you want them to.

I then work very hard to live up to that. I realize there are all many variations and shades of gray here, and I am not going to get into that here, but I firmly live by this axiom and it has served me and the companies/ ministries I serve quite well.