Green Lighting Others (Waiting For Permission, 2 of 3)1

(This post is part 2 of 3 posts on waiting for permission. Stay tuned for Nobody’s Going To Honk For You!. You can read Running A Red Light here.)

For those who are at a red light, waiting. Yep, run it. We talked about that.

But this post is for those of you who have access to the traffic light. Leaders. It’s time to green light some people.

One of the first leaders I ever worked with was a green-lighter. Doug Creasey was the first pastor I had the privilege of working alongside on projects and events. I was eighteen. I would come in his office with idea after idea after idea. And trust me, I was no prodigy. This wasn’t Good Will Hunting or anything. I was just excited about potential ways we could do things, and he happened to listen to young people with crazy ideas.

And he often wrapped up these idea sessions with three words to me: “Go for it.”

Doug understood the power of a person in his organization with a solution, with a passion. And he didn’t need to take my idea, rework it, make it his, and take the credit. He just gave me a green light.

Leaders, in a perfect world people would not be held back by fear, distrust, or potential “what ifs”. We would like to think that we all work in organizations full of fearless, innovative people. The truth is: Innovative? Yes. Fearless? No. And so we get the privilege of green-lighting.

Some ways to green-light:

• Describe the current realities and problems that exist in your organization or community. Some people are extremely creative and innovative once they have a problem to work on. Many great entrepreneurs have found success simply by seeing a problem, finding a solution, and acting. Except that Snuggie guy. I have no idea what that was about.

• Create a culture that is comfortable with failure. How do you handle failure? Are you okay with it, personally and organizationally? The lament of many great leaders is that they did not help their teams to fail fast enough. As the saying goes, “If we’re not failing, we’re not trying.”

• Resource passionate people. This can be hard, depending on budgets and personnel. But again, passionate people with ideas are difference makers.

• Create systems for evaluation and feedback. If you are ready to green-light someone, stay in it with them. Find a way to evaluate their idea, product, or event. Create a feedback loop so that you can refine and course correct along the way.

• Get out of the way. This should give us a sense of freedom, but it can give many of us a sense of turmoil, because we’re not in control. But the truth is that lots of great things can happen without you! Of course, you have to be mindful, create systems, work as a team, and think things through. But you have got to hand over the wheel at some point.

Who are you going to green-light today? Go for it!