In motivation, hygiene factors have to be in place before employees can move from neutral towards highly motivated. The same principle is true for any levelling up – some things have to be in place first. People won’t take initiatives and start exploring until they know what they’re doing on a basic level.

So, as a leader, you first want to help them develop their skills and provide them with things like context and information. To do that, you need to be in control of the situation.

So, the hygiene factor for a leader is to be in control.

You will remember that what gets you to neutral won’t get you any further, so what changes when employees level-up? Well, they take more initiatives, so they need less control from you and to lead themselves more.

This is a leadership dilemma that has no parallel in motivation or football. In motivation, when you move towards enthusiastic, there is no harm in raising salaries, it’s just not the most important thing to do. In football, when you learn how to read the game, there is no harm in running faster, it’s just not the most important.

But in leadership, if you keep increasing control, you will stop all exploring. Enough control is a hygiene factor. Too much control is a risk factor.

This is the big challenge in exploring leadership. First you need to get control, then you need to give it away. First you give them instructions, then you must stop because instructions will stop them from thinking. The logic isn’t hard: First, you teach them skills in a controlled environment; then you back off to give them room to fully use those skills. Emotionally, it’s very hard; you have to let go before you know if they can handle it, but you will never know if you don’t let go.

You can’t instruct a person to come up with an interesting thought or take an initiative, they have to think for themselves. The moment you give them an instruction they will do as you say and stop thinking independently. You can nudge, suggest and encourage, but in the end the person has to decide to make the effort and level-up. If you stay in control, they can’t level up – you will block the ladder.

Let’s remind ourselves why we are talking about exploring leadership when it’s so much easier to lead by instruction.
When people level up they enjoy their work more, they get more done and they push the company forward. With a learning mindset, they keep raising their competence and with a mandate to explore, they can put all that competence to work. It’s a true win-win – it’s good for employees, it’s good for leaders, it’s good for customers and it’s wonderful for NCAB.

So, the exploring leader’s role is not to make all the decisions for the team, it’s to help employees make good decisions.

To level up your leadership, you have to go from being in control to learning how to nudge your employees towards more self-leadership.