Distance & Culture are really the acid tests of leadership.
Why, because Distance exposes poor leadership skills faster than anything else. With your people located away from you, it is impossible for you to “firefight” your way to success. You are not there to manage their activities. As for Culture, business is done in different ways in every country…so you can’t really tell your people exactly what they must do.
To successfully lead people across distances and cultures (and still have a life), you need to move from managing by activities to leading by outcomes. If you delegate activities to your people, who owns the achievement of the outcome those activities support? Right! – You do, the leader, and does that sound good? Probably not!
Those leaders, who succeed in leading across distance & culture, focus on delegating OUTCOMES and focusing their people on OWNING the achievement.
When was the last time you washed a rental car? Probably never! … Because you don’t own it. I n leading your people across distances and cultures, would you rather have them renting or owning their job?
Your people, who OWN their job, will always feel challenged to solve problems before bringing them back to you. However, the people who are renting their job, will do just as a rental car with a problem, they will give it right back to you.
The more OWNERSHIP your people take, the more successful you both will be.
Remember,
OUTCOMES drive OWNERSHIP, and ownership drives COMMITMENT.
… And this is WHY Ownership is Key!
