Get out of the way
After setting goals and following up, for everything to work well, the next thing you have to do is back off.
“My role is to get out of the way,” he says. “We have some outstanding people, and if you set the goals and set the expectations, you want to empower them by having that clarity of expectations and then getting out of the way and then saying, ‘OK, you go do it, and what can I do to support you?’”
Bentsen knows how important it is to get out of the way because he’s seen his own frustrations through his own experiences with micromanagers and, on the other hand, his experiences with those who empowered him.
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” he says. “I look at who have been great leaders for me over the years and know that they were there but they had given and they had instilled in me a tremendous amount of confidence — ‘Tim, I know you can do this. I’ve seen you do this before. We’re in agreement this is where you’re going; go do it and check back with me in two weeks,’ or whatever. But you learn from the people that you work with.”
While you may learn how to better let go by watching those who have led you, you’ll also learn how much to let go as you watch those you currently lead.
“As I’ve had the opportunity to work with others, you give more rope to different people,” Bentsen says. “That’s why you get to know people and you understand Samantha here can do some incredible things so I’m going to let her have almost as much rope as she needs, where Steve over here is maybe a little less experienced so we’re going to have a little more frequent touch points.”
Those touch points come in the form of evaluations and metrics. You have to have that follow through and look at how they are performing against those goals and objectives. One of the expectations he has of his people is to provide constructive feedback on someone’s performance in order to help them grow and understand the opportunities they have in the firm. He expects performance reviews of new associates after every project of more than 80 hours. For more experienced people, reviews are expected semiannually. He’s also quick to note that sometimes the best performance “review” is often the immediate and specific feedback that someone provides to a colleague.
“For a huge percentage of the population, they’re just going to do that anyway, but for everyone else, there is an expectation that what gets measured gets done,” Bentsen says.
Once you do all of this, you’ll have good systems in place to move the business forward.
He says, “You set all these expectations, and then you get out of the way and let them go do it and don’t micromanage and have your points of accountability and know that you’re there to support and encourage and help the teams going forward.”
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