Posted by Adam W. in Questions for the Candidates - Hands-off or Hands-on
This is a questions for all candidates.

An observation I’ve made of people who hold leadership positions in this club is that often they tend to be too hands-off in their leadership approach or too hands-on.

The problems of being too hands-off are mostly obvious. Those under the leader are not held accountable and will slip. Problems don’t get dealt with quickly and appropriately. People lower in the chain of command get frustrated by everyone above them not dealing with their concerns. Dormant members get left in positions too long. The club suffers because people aren’t addressing what they should be.

The problems of a leader who’s too hands-on can be just as frustrating. Those under the leader feel micromanaged and not trusted. Extra hoops to jump through end up being created that don’t add value. Progress slows down because the micromanaging leader makes everything more difficult than it needs to be. The club suffers because volunteers stop enjoying putting in effort, which ends up being more trouble than it is worth.

Do you think you tend to be too hands-off or too hands-on? What weaknesses and challenges do you have to overcome as a result? How do you plan to lead in a balanced way?

Adam W.

Hi Adam,

I’d say that I tend more towards hands on. One of the reasons I’ve succeeded as President in the past is that I tend to have a lot of ideas and thoughts that are many steps down the road from the current situation, but that can mean needing certain things to happen in the immediate to set that up. Also, frankly, I do this because I like to help and I want to help as much as possible to enable the people under me to succeed. Sometimes, that gets taken the wrong way. Finally, I can definitely be guilty of being someone who has trouble delegating a task if I don’t think the person will do as good a job as I would at it. All of these can definitely be taken the way you listed above — as a show of distrust in people, which ends up frustrating me since I’m trying to do something positive and help, even if I’m accidentally stepping on some toes along the way. It also means I can have my hands in too many pots and get worn out and/or not able to devote the time/attention to them I’d like.

I’d like to say I have an amazing plan, but that implies intent. The biggest thing that conspires to make me more balanced is life. :) I just don’t have the time to be involved in every single aspect of the club the way that I’d like to be, so instead, I focus my attention on making sure to put people in those positions that will do awesome work and then identify and offer my assistance where it would be most helpful. As far as the other aspects, I’ve found that having clear responsibilities and sets of tasks for the people below me helps me feel reassured that things are getting accomplished without my direct input.

• Sarah