Firefighting: Reactivity, Pro-Activity and the Empowerment Contradiction

If you are still managing to the emergency and not leading to anticipate the future, you can't possibly expect your organization to remain relevant.

Rolling up your sleeves and diving in to help your people put out the growing fire should be the exception, not the norm. When fire fighting becomes the norm you and your organization are doomed.

Fire fighting also limits your team's ability to interject innovation into the development of a solution because the pressure is on to get the line running again, or re-work and ship to avoid a stock-out, and on and on. No time is possible to brainstorm, greenhouse and evaluate more optimal solutions.

You need to support your colleague's efforts to transition to pro-activity. This starts by not trivializing the level of work they are handling today, and the extent to which fire fighting is killing productivity. Instructing them to work smarter or do a better job of prioritizing is deflecting accountability and hiding from your responsibilities as a leader to help your team.

A compounding factor is what I term the empowerment contradiction. This type of contradiction is never more evident when colleagues get trapped in reactivity. You shouldn't in one breath state your people are empowered, and in the same sentence state they can never say no to a need or customer without first having your permission. The contemporary manager would never think of verbalizing such a contradiction. What I have seen happen however is colleague decisions to prioritize are challenged and undermined by autocratic managers who have an angry customer on their back.

If, on the other hand you enjoy fighting fires and want to make all of the decisions then put on your gear, grab a hose and look for smoke. Leave the leadership and pro-activity to those who have a passion to serve others.