When is "hands off" too hands off? Are you an absentee leader?

Speaking generally, knowing that some people require more direction than others, many leaders aren’t sure of the appropriate amount of guidance and support to provide. One time, I heard a senior leader say “I hire great people and then I get out of the way” and that prompted me to write my article on why I think hands-off leadership is lazy leadership.

 

I’m hoping to provide you with some general guidelines or things to think about when determining your level of involvement as a leader. 

 

📌 lacks curiosity (and doesn’t want to know) 

📌 is complacent / only concerned about going through the motions

📌 doesn’t support employees (or doesn’t prioritize supporting employees)

📌 is uninformed & blind to problems / out of the loop (and might not care)

📌 is unaware of context (and might not care)

📌 doesn’t really want the responsibilities of leadership (but wants the title & the compensation)

📌 is more concerned with themselves than others 

📌 doesn’t care about any details 

📌 doesn’t remove obstacles 

📌 doesn’t listen

📌 is generally very hands-off and aloof 

What else can you think of? What other traits make an absentee leader?

 

The other side of this is micromanagement, where you’re too involved and you get into the weeds instead of acting as a partner who helps others solve their problems. See my article: how to give up control and delegate effectively. 

 

What I see the most is that leaders themselves are very insecure in their abilities and rightfully so because they generally receive little-to-no leadership development and are expected to inherently have the skills or wing it as they go. Because they are insecure and undeveloped, they tend to be very hands-off because they don’t know how to effectively handle situations or don’t have the confidence to navigate things so they choose to avoid. 

 

Be aware of what an absentee leader looks like. Reflect on this and do a self-assessment, ask for external feedback to learn how others perceive you, ask your subordinates something like “What’s one thing you’d like me to change to better support you?” and see what they say. Depending on how many subordinates you have, see if you can identify a theme in their answers. 

 

The over-arching solution is to develop leaders so that they learn and have a clear picture of what it looks like to exhibit highly effective behavior and then everyone needs to be held to certain standards, depending on how you choose to run your business. Additionally, getting to the root of self-esteem and confidence issues is necessary for leaders to confidently portray the highly effective behavior and lead by example. 

 

This is never a good sign, but, unfortunately, it’s a lot more common than not to have an absentee leader. Depending on how much you deem that it’s worth the effort, I would suggest trying out some managing up tactics or having some radically candid conversations. There’s a way you can professionally and constructively express your needs that might help them become more involved or motivated. You can take the first step and share your work style/communication preferences and ask for the leader to share theirs. How much are you willing to adapt, put in effort, and tolerate? Try to assess if your boss has an open/growth mindset and is willing to learn and improve; research shows us that leadership is 70% learned so their willingness to learn and be open to new perspectives is a make-or-break for this.