How do vision and autonomy fit together?
This imagine is from this article.
The core of my work is around growth. For example, I help individual leaders gain new skills, grow into a new and improved leadership style, and/or level-up to have greater impact at work. For organizations, one of the main things we do is partner with our clients to develop growth plans to scale their impact. This often includes growing revenue and talent. We also do growth work with teams as the entity. We define what effectiveness means for the team and facilitate spaces and processes in which the teams can shift their culture.
At this point you may be asking what does this have to do with Tannenbaum-Schmidt Leadership Continuum or the title of this note asking How do vision and autonomy fit together?. I'll talk about the latter first. I have two clients right now who are grappling with this question. One is a Senior Leader at a non-profit whose team has ballooned from 9 people to 60 over the past two years. The other is a small non-profit who has had incredible success over 10 years while working with a structure in which the entire staff is independent contractors. In both cases autonomy over vision is running the show. The Senior Leader's direct reports LOVE working for her for a myriad of reasons with one of the biggest ones being that she gives them a ton of freedom to do what they want. The non-profit with 10 independent contractors has a staff who get to have their cake and eat it too. They have steady work, can say yes or no to projects as they arise, and they can take on work with other clients that is of interest to them and to make more money. The majority of the team has worked with this non-profit for over 8 years. They, too, LOVE their leader, the CEO, and their work for this organization. You might think "What's the problem?".
The problem is that both of these clients want growth. To grow both of these clients need to shift from focusing on autonomy as their core driver to creating a shared vision with their teams and then finding the places where staff can make autonomous decisions and work autonomously to reach that vision. In both cases, autonomy without shared vision is leading to stagnation vs. growth. They can and should still lean into their "Subordinate Centered Leadership" styles (this is who they are and what has allowed their success) while they examine where the team would benefit from more direction and aspects of a "Manager Centered Leadership" style. (Here's the connection to the continuum.)
As I work with these clients we're going to be defining their vision for the work of their teams, creating the next-best structure of their teams, and being deliberate about how to not lose what's made them successful to-date. We'll be shifting towards a clear shared vision, structure and way of leading that ensures their staff have the right amount of autonomy. Growth requires a shared vision supported by operating structures that allow teams to flourish. Finding that sweet spot with autonomy can be a leader's magic weapon.
Where do you naturally fall on the continuum? In what situations should you move in one direction or another?
Jodi
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