Thoughts on Leadership #7 - BE THE BULLDOZER.

If you have been following this series, hopefully see that these thoughts are in a specific order and building on each other. So here goes one of my favorite topics...

If I were to ask you, "what is the function of a bulldozer" what would your answer be? The most typical answer I get is "to push things out of the way" and that's exactly right! The job of a bulldozer is to clear a path. The principle remains the same when you translate that to Leadership and how it works with people. Your responsibility as a leader is to clear a path for your team to achieve success.

If you are gathered with your team discussing a task that needs to be completed and it becomes clear that there are impediments to success, it's your job to clear the path! Even when you have provided the proper information, context, and resources, sometimes there are people, politics or other issues impeding the path to success. Your job is to get moving and Be the Bulldozer! 

For Football fans, it's like a pulling offensive lineman. You're creating a path for the running back to get through and gain yardage. Your answer to that situation should be “I will take care of that.” You may need to go talk to another colleague, negotiate with another department for resources, rethink competing priorities or just get them to stay out of the way! Whatever it takes, you've got to Be the Bulldozer and clear the path so they can be successful. 

If people feel like you've given them a task, and then run the other direction and you're not bulldozing for them, advocating, clearing the path, then you are not a leader, and they are not going to trust you.

While most of the time, you are bulldozing other people or things out of the way to get a job done, at times the “Bulldozer” must be used on your own people. On occasion, the impediment to getting something done is someone on your own team. If that is the case, your job is to turn the bulldozer on them and clear your own people out of the way. You cannot be afraid to do that. 

So be a bulldozer. Be an active Leader.