Generous Authority
The third part of being a hospitable leader is generous authority! A way for us to share responsibilities in a way that helps foster the independent decision making with others.
When sharing our authority with others, it is important for each person to know what decisions they are authorized to make and what they are not authorized to make. You all may often hear me say, “make good choices.” With time and encouragement, most leaders learn how to decide in the moment what needs to be done. For example, if a child is injured at work, most of our RBTs know to complete an incident report in the moment. This is a great example of the BCBAs offering generous authority to the techs to independently document what happened.
Most leaders do not want to be bogged down by every decision, as it is taxing and takes its toll on them. By giving others the freedom to make decisions in the moment that align with their role power, we can have a more balanced and successful team. Role power is the power of the role or title that you hold. It is important to understand our individual role power and how that impacts others on the team.
Good leaders model appropriate boundaries and accountability. We must respect each others boundaries, establish health work-life balance boundaries, and stay firm to the boundaries that we establish. It is important for us to take on the responsibilities of the roles we have so that it helps others know exactly what to expect from us. In a party analogy, no one likes a “chill host” as they might lead us astray and not give us all of the important details related to dress code or what to bring. It would lead to an awkward party if we showed up dressed too fancy or too casual compared to everyone else. So no one likes a “chill leader,” one who says, “do whatever you want,” as that makes it difficult for others to know what expectations to meet. In a growing organization, this is something that is becoming even more important to help us train and onboard new staff.
Over the next few months, our leadership team will work toward outlining more specific descriptions around the authority that each role has.
I’d like for each of you to reflect on ways you hold others accountable for their behaviors at work — bonus points if you shout it out in the chat showing that you’ve read this far in the newsletter! Join me next week for our 5th installment: Setting Others Up To Succeed!
