Tales From Leadership: Cutting Off Someone's Legs

Hey, everybody. So tales from leadership or tales from entrepreneurial ship today is going to be on leadership. I'm just going to share a brief story which I believe is going to be very beneficial and helpful for you that as you take the reins of leadership in any capacity whatsoever, whether it's CEO of an organization, whether it's a vp, whether it's director, whether it's supervisor, manager, you name it. Ultimately, I believe these little tools and tricks will help support you in your leadership journey.

So let's use this example. Let's say, for instance, you come across your local taco bell. At your local Taco Bell, you have your general manager, you have your store manager, you have your supervisor, and then you have, of course, all of your frontline workers that are making your food and all the things, right? So with that being said, there's, you know, the general manager, there's your tree down. So let's say, for instance. Okay, let's say, for instance, you skip your direct supervisor. Okay?

So let's say, for instance, you skip your. Not your direct super. Your direct report. So the individual right below you. Okay, so let's say, for instance, that general manager skips the store supervisor and goes to the next layer. You know, those direct reports, whoever those might be, and jumps a leadership level and answers questions on behalf of the individual that directly ports to that person. You have absolutely cut off their legs. Let me repeat that again. You've absolutely cut off their legs.

So, in corporate America, a really easy one to look at is, let's say you have a finance level two. Let's say you have a finance director, a finance level two, a finance level three, and then a finance manager. So if the finance one, the finance two reports to the finance one. If that individual jumps, okay, if that individual jumps the direct report and goes to the next level and gives direction to that individual, that's either contradictory or otherwise, to that individual's direct supervisor, you immediately have cut off their legs.

And for all intents and purposes, that leadership structure shift is forever. Kind of. It's going to be. It's going to be hampered. Okay, so. So let me give you an example of what to do. So instead of not giving direction down to individuals below yourself, below your leadership structure, that's lower than your direct report. Here's a classic example. Hey, Luke, you know, just wondering about XYZ. I tried to talk to my supervisor about this, wondering what we should do. Your response should be immediately.

Well, thank you so much. And when's the last time you tried to connect when's the last time you emailed? When's the last communication that you had? Okay, sounds great. What's the response that you got? Okay, wait for that. Then after that, say, it sounds to me like this is a situation that you should talk to your direct supervisor about. You can never go wrong by sending that message. Okay, so if somebody's below you asking about your direct report on behalf of individuals that are below your direct report, always remember, you can send a message of support or you can cut off their legs.

And we've all done this, I'm sure. Sometimes we've cut off their legs. Sometimes we support some support, but lean into that support perspective. So again, if anybody is reporting to you and somebody asks you about a measure, a tactic, a strategy, a goal, etcetera, that your direct report should be answering, not you, you immediately should stop and say, have you emailed? Have you connected, have you contacted your direct supervisor, etcetera? Sounds like, you know, you need to go to them to try to find the answers.

Why is it called cutting off their legs? Great question. So why I call it cutting off their legs is just my theory. Behind it is in the leadership structure of individual leading here, individual below and below again and below again right here. That individual that reports to you, if you ultimately step in and answer questions on behalf of that individual, you've cut off their legs. They have no ground to stand on anymore. Because why does that happen? Those individuals then that you just answered the questions for will never go to that direct report anymore.

They won't go to that individual for answers. They will go up to the next individual. So you cut off their legs. So I hope that helps, Kerry. Okay. So it can go both ways. Right. So if you're asking questions up, right. If you can go, if you're asking questions up, always make sure that you've done your due diligence and asking your direct supervisor trying for help, all the other things and you're not getting the answers you need, then by all means ask the next level. But with the clarity of, I'm not getting clarity on this.

Wondering if you can help me. Wondering if we can have a three way meeting, three way conversation in order to gain clarity or support or something like that. But always involve that individual. When you take that individual out of the mix, ultimately, like I said, you're cutting off their legs and they are done. So that can happen both ways. It can happen up, down and bottom up, right. And bottom up and up down. It's literally just a hierarchical structure. That's it it doesn't mean anybody is less important in an organization.

It's just simply structure. So I just wanted to quickly just talk about this notion of messaging down, messaging it up, and ultimately answering questions for individuals from the bottom up or top down approach. And this cutting off their legs mentality. Like, are you supporting the individual below you? Right? Are you supporting the individual below you? And to the flip side of the coin, are you advocating for the person above you? Right? That's super important both ways, right? So where it becomes toxic is where the individual below is trying to jump over their supervisor and where the individual down is trying to jump under their direct report and try to go to individuals below.

That's where all that toxicity comes into play. So always remember that it's called cutting off their legs. That's just my theory behind it. But with that being said, I hope this helps. And I hope if you're listening to it back, you understand what it means. Just always remember, when you're looking for clarity, have the right individuals that you need in the room for clarity's sake. Okay. But have an amazing day. Amy, hi to you as well. I hope it does make sense. Amy Carey, hopefully that cutting off their legs perspective makes sense because, yes, they cannot keep moving.

And for all intents and purposes, it is absolutely becomes. Thank you. It does make sense. Communication is so important to avoid toxicity. Yes, yes and yes. All forms of communication, like I said, back to the point earlier, is ask questions like, have you emailed? Have you texted? Have you followed up? Have you done the things that you needed to do? Before you start jumping into conclusions and start cutting off people's legs, make sure that you get a framework for where the communication stands and last stood, if that makes sense.

Hope that helps. I'll be back next week again for either tales of leadership or tales of entrepreneurial ship. And I hope my message hits home with all of us because I'm trying to talk about broad scale issues that happen at every organization on earth. Have an amazing day, y'all. Bye bye now. And in Minnesota, enjoy this weather. It's unbelievable.