Here’s the next installment of “Leading on the Seas.” I chose another fairly common phrase in today’s vernacular – “taking the wind out of their sails.”
Here’s the basic definition via wikipedia:Taking the wind out of his sails – To sail in a way that steals the wind from another ship. cf. overbear.
Picture yourself in a boat that is in motion. The wind is behind you, you’ve got momentum and speed. Then another boat navigates in such a way where they actually steal your wind. Very quickly you go from momentum and speed to being somewhat dead in the water – just floating there knowing that it’s going to take a heck of a lot of work to get back the momentum you just lost.
Empowerment is a buzz word today and I blog on it frequently. But is there a better metaphor than “having the wind taken out of your sails” for those moments when you are riding high on vision and motivation and someone hijacks your momentum for whatever reason? A similar metaphor would be “raining on your parade,” but we’ll stick with the seas for now.
I’ve gone on record as writing that empowerment is a fine art that many claim to value, but fewer really know how to do. They like it in theory, but it’s hard for them to see whether empowerment is really happening or not. It’s the same for disempowerment. Leaders often fail to recognize when they have taken the wind out of people’s sails. As long as they’ve got smooth sailing, they don’t recognize their impact on others.
Sometimes the wind is taken out of people’s sails by unfortunate circumstances. Other times it’s a product of leadership philosophy, lack of awareness, or lack of character. Some don’t have a vision for empowering others. They might use the word, but they see people as tools to achieve their goals. They delegate, they use. Some people just have no idea about their presence or impact on others. They don’t understand how to steward or manage their power. They don’t understand how people experience them. Others abuse power because of character issues or they have other issues that lend themselves to self-focused leadership.
I’ve taken the wind out of people’s sails before. I’ve had the wind taken out of my sails. It’s a bummer all the way around. The end result is the eroding of trust, messages of lack of belief or confidence from leadership, and an environment where tasks take priority over people and values.
Servant leadership demands an intentional and clear effort to empower people. A fundamental aspect of leadership in any context is to figure out how to help others gain momentum and speed, not hijack their wind because of a limited leadership paradigm, lack of awareness or EQ, or character issues. As leaders we can be the wind behind our people’s sails (rather than beneath their wings!) or we can leave them dead in the water having to work two or three times as hard to lead out the way they are called to.
How do you seek to help others build momentum as leaders, empowering them towards greater fruitfulness and development?
How do you handle it when you realize you’ve taken the wind out of people’s sails? What do you do with leaders that you might experience that routinely take the wind out of your sails?
