Forget the notion that leaders naturally want empowered teams of employees closest to the process making decisions and solving problems. Some may, but for many leaders this building block of lean challenges leaders’ very identity within an organization.

How so? Many leaders build their careers by being super heroes, pulling on their cape to save the day.  “They become the expert, the go-to person, the fixer, the firefighter, the decision maker, the hero,” says Dr. Mohamed Saleh. “People admire them; they save the day.”

However, done right, lean builds strong teams that don’t require a fire fighter or hero, ultimately stripping the cape away from leaders. Then where are they?

“The reality is most leaders want empowered teams until empowerment reduces their importance,” Saleh adds.

In this episode of Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement, podcast cohosts Saleh and John Dyer dive into the dicey topic of how empowered teams of workers challenge the traditional notion of leadership and cause many leaders to turn away from empowerment. They also outline ways to create a better dynamic.

Among the duo’s discussion points:

• Organizations must redefine what makes for a promotable leader if empowerment is a goal, Dyer notes. If the highly visible fire-fighting leader is prized above the leader who is quietly getting the job done with a team of empowered workers, then empowerment won’t take hold.

“You got to redefine what a good promotable leader is in your company if you ever want that to change,” he says.

• Leaders must understand how their roles change in this new culture of empowerment, and organizations must value that change. Rather than the expert, the leader becomes a coach, Dyer says.

“A good coach isn't measured on their own personal performance; they're measured on their team's performance, right? You can be the best coach in any sport, but if your team stinks, you're not going to be in that job for very long. They might give you a year or two of rebuilding, but after a year or two of total failure, they're going to start looking for a new coach,” Dyer says.  But if your team is successful, even if they're not … winning the ultimate championship, but they're showing progress or showing improvement, and they're starting to make the playoffs, then you're going to get this long contract.”

“That's what we need to start changing our leaders to,” Dyer adds. “We've done a pretty good job of moving from managers to leaders. Now we need to go from leaders to coaches.”

 Adds Saleh: “I (as a leader) need to move from a hero to a teacher. I need to move from a problem solver to capability builder. I need to move from being the guy that gives all the answers to asking questions. There's a psychological shift here that happens from a traditional leadership.”  

• And finally, the two discuss how critically important it is that senior leadership get engaged and set the tone, showing they value capability building and influence over wielding power.