Stay on Track: The Power of Setting Leadership Guardrails

What if leadership guardrails are the secret to staying on track?

In this episode of Relationships at Work, communications and leadership expert Russel Lolacher explores the crucial role these boundaries play in challenging leaders and offering perspectives they might otherwise miss. Russel shares real-world questions that effective guardrails should raise and reveals how they can transform both your leadership and workplace culture.

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Transcript

Welcome back to Relationships At Work – Your guide to building workplace connections and avoiding leadership blind spots.  I’m your host Russel Lolacher

I’m a communications and leadership nerd with a couple of decades of experience and a heap of curiosity on how we can make the workplace better. If you’re a leader trying to understand and improve your impact on work culture and the employee experience, you’re in the right place.

This mini-episode is a quick and valuable bit of information to set you up for the week ahead.

Inspired by our R@W Note Newsletter, I’m passing on to you…  

Time To Set Up Our Leadership Guardrails

When we as leaders make impactful decisions for our teams or the organization, share important information or set up processes and rules… we have to ensure we’re not doing this alone. 

And I don’t mean surrounding ourselves with people that just go along with our decisions because they’re too busy to say otherwise. Or even worse, sycophants. Yes people. 

We need to ask, “Do we have someone at work who keeps us as leaders in check?” Do we have someone who calls us out when we say something stupid in an all-staff meeting? Do we have someone who asks the hard questions when we're making decisions we aren't qualified to make? Do we have someone who calls us out on our bullshit? 

Great leaders don't need "Yes People". It actually gets in the way of us becoming great leaders.
 What we need are "What the Hell Were You Thinking, Dumbass but in a Kind, Constructive Way People".

Leadership faces more and more challenges in our increasingly busy schedules. Lack of training. Lack of direction. Lack of definitions of success. Lack of oversight as we move up the organization. Lots of lacks. 

So we need leadership guardrails. 

Sure, guardrails can be policies and guidelines but rarely have I heard of a great leader emerge because of following policies and guidelines.  Do we need policies and guidelines? Obviously. That's how we enforce things. But what we need are people. People that we trust that challenge us, that oppose us, that ensure our actions and decisions align with the organization's values, goals, and ethical standards but also with humanity, compassion and empathy. It keeps us human and humble. 

We need people to keep us in check as a defence mechanism against being out of touch, too high in the org chart or against a growing “I know best” ego.

Some example of Guardrail Questions:

·      Does this decision demonstrate empathy and respect for all individuals involved?

·      How will this action impact our team's well-being and the overall organizational culture?

·      Is this decision in the best interest of our long-term goals, and does it consider the diverse needs and perspectives of all our stakeholders?

·      Who is impacted by these decisions and have we engaged them so it’s not a surprise? 

We get so busy as leaders, we don’t always make the time to really consider the impacts of what we do, say or decide. So having these people in our work/life is even more essential. 

I’ve hinted at these but let’s dig deeper into what leadership guardrails can help with:

1.    Ethical Standards: Ensuring all our decisions and actions adhere to a high standard of ethics and integrity. This involves avoiding things like conflicts of interest, dishonesty, and unethical behaviour. We never think we do things unethically, but isn’t it important we make sure of it? 

2.    Alignment with Organizational Values: Guiding leaders to make decisions and take actions that are consistent with the core values and culture of the organization. And I mean the ones on the website and on the posters. The ideal values, rather than the lip service ones.  This helps in establishing and maintaining a consistent organizational identity and helping create that positive workplace environment.

3.    Risk Management: Guardrails are about establishing boundaries to manage and mitigate risks. They can become teachable moments for us as leaders to see where we’re overstepping. This involves understanding the potential negative outcomes of decisions and taking steps to avoid unnecessary or unmanageable risks.

4.    Accountability:   Guardrails can help hold leaders accountable for their actions and decisions. This includes establishing clear expectations and consequences for not adhering to these guardrails.

5.    Respect for Diversity and Inclusion: It can really highlight for leaders the importance of considering DEI in their actions and decisions. It encourages leaders to respect and embrace diversity, ensuring that all decisions and actions are inclusive and equitable.

These guardrails aren't there to stifle innovation or hold us back. These people are here to provide a safe and responsible framework within which we can operate effectively and ethically. They can help us build trust among employees, colleagues, executives and stakeholders while teaching us how to best show up and grow.

Even the most successful leaders need bumpers to keep themselves from going into the gutter (how's that for landing a bowling metaphor?) Because a leader left unchecked and unmanaged is a leader in danger of harming their reputation, their relationships and any healthy culture they're trying to build.

As a leader, establish guardrails – officially or unofficially, to ensure we’re the best possible version of ourselves.