A Rare Leadership Skill: Dealing With People Who Want Out By Offering Crowns For Convoy

As a leader, you'll inevitably be faced with people wanting to leave your team or organization. Dealing with the challenge is critical for your leadership success. Your response will have ramifications far beyond your immediate circumstances. One of the best ways to respond comes from Shakespeare's Henry V.

The stirring speech of Shakespeare's Henry before the battle of Agincourt contains many leadership nuggets. But commentators who recount the speech usually overlook a particularly valuable one. They focus on the speech's "band of brothers" aspects but neglect the fact that Henry also said that if any of his soldiers would rather not fight, he'd give them passport and "crowns for convoy" back to England.

Henry was aware that some of his soldiers were reluctant to fight; for he led a rather bedraggled army. History recounts they had marched 260 miles in 17 days. They were short of food. They were drenched by two weeks of continuous rain. Many of them were suffering from dysentery contracted from drinking fetid pond water. And they were facing the flower of French knighthood, knights who were rested, better equipped and eager for battle. So there were probably many soldiers who wanted to avoid battle, get quickly to the coast and board ships for England.

Shakespeare has his Henry respond to these leadership challenges in a telling way. Instead of trying to cajole those who wanted to leave into remaining with him, or on the other hand, punish them, he did something much more effective: He actually offered them passports and money to go.

"Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, That he which hath no stomach to this fight, Let him depart; his passport shall be made, And crowns for convoy put into his purse; We would not die in that man's company That fears his fellowship to die with us."

Now, apply this lesson to those people who tell you they want out. You may find yourself reshaping your relationship with them in positive ways and boosting your leadership effectiveness with the people who remain.

Here's how you do it. Offer them "crowns for convoy." Have them draw up specific leadership actions that they will take to leave. Provide milestones and ways that you and they can monitor their progress. Support them in their taking leave as you would any cause leader who is staying.

One might say that if somebody wants out ... good riddance! But let's examine this. When somebody wants to leave, two facts apply. One is that, clearly, that person - for whatever reason - is dissatisfied and is looking for satisfaction elsewhere. And two is that you have a relationship with the person. It might be a good relationship. It might be a bad relationship. But here's the point: You don't want to get the two facts mixed up in a bad way. Because that relationship will continue in one way or another even if you don't set eyes on each other again.

A bad relationship with an employee that left your organization can come back to haunt you in many unforeseen ways. For instance, it may poison your relationship with the people who remain behind. By supporting that person in taking leadership of their leaving, you are creating an opportunity for you to change your relationship with them, to work together in a positive way. This may help redress any bad feelings that might have otherwise grown worse.

When CROWNS FOR CONVOY are not offered in spite or rancor but out of a genuine desire to help, you'll transform a potentially bad situation into a beneficial one. And who knows? Maybe, like Henry, you'll achieve an unexpected upset win.

2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

---

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. ? and for more than 20 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: "49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results," at http://www.actionleadership.com

---

What to Do When Trust is Low

Trust is essential. You can't run a business without it. Customers leave. Risk taking evaporates. You find yourself surrounded by naysayers ? or worse ? yes men... Read More

When Business Becomes A Battlefield

"We have to be careful it's like a minefield out there" "I like to lob the odd grenade into the meeting to shake things up" "You have... Read More

Innovation Management ? does the idea fit with the firm?

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are distinct processes that enhance problem... Read More

Executive Performance -- Whos to Blame for Incompetent Managers?

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal raised the question: Who's to blame for inept managers?The answer, of course, is the superiors who hire or promote... Read More

A Leadership Screw Driver: The 90 Day Improvement Plan

I was talking with first-line supervisors in a utility company about how to deal with poor performing employees."You've gotta put the screws to him!" suggested one supervisor... Read More

Motivation - You Get What You Reward

There's a programme currently running on BBC Television in the UK called - "Little Angels." It's a series that offers help and advice to parents who're experiencing... Read More

Dissenion Down On The Cubicle Farm

How content and satisfied are American employees? Not very!According to Corinne Maier, a psychotherapist and author of "Bonjour Laziness," corporate cubicle inhabitants are anything but tranquil and... Read More

Indecent Proposal in the Workplace ? An Overview of Workplace Harassment & Employer Liability

An allegation of harassment in the workplace is a growing phenomenon facing companies across the U.S. The following is an article derived from a 2003 seminar I... Read More

What Cross-cultural Training Can Do for You

International business is more complex than ever before. Success in every sector is now seen in global terms. Yet success in working with colleagues from different cultures... Read More

In Leadership, The Critical Convergence Drives Great Results

The Leader's Fallacy lives! We subscribe to the Fallacy when we believe our enthusiasm over a particular leadership challenge is automatically reciprocated by the people we lead.If... Read More

Creativity and Innovation Management ? Competition versus Collaboration

There is much confusion as to whether competition or collaboration is most beneficial to creativity and innovation. Though there are negatives to collaboration and it is not... Read More

What is the Most Difficult Part of an Improvement Program?

Answer: Starting one.Most of us realize that there is probably a better way to perform certain functions or tasks, but improvement programs seem to take second seat... Read More

Examining the Relationship Between Employee Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction

Researchers have undertaken numerous studies to look at the connection between customer and employee satisfaction. A majority of these studies were able to uncover a correlation between... Read More

Manufacturing Capacity as a Commodity

Excess capacity in an automobile plant at Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, GM, and Honda is a commodity and those who study finite capacity scheduling modules can readily see... Read More

Do You Really Care What People Think?

You had better care! Because what people think usually leads to predictable behaviors that can really affect your business, non-profit or association for better or worse.Look at... Read More

Problem Solving the Problem Solving Meeting

We go to meetings to share information, to report on project status, to make decisions, to get the free lunch, and because we were invited. (Sorry that... Read More

On the Road to Assertiveness

Learning to be assertive takes time, courage and the ability to recognize the situation for what is really is.You want to get something done, and you need... Read More

A Tricky Supervision Challenge

Many managers believe that treating their team members as responsible adults will assure excellent results. The truth is that while this usually is effective, some people need... Read More

Why Training Fails

Sometimes when I conduct my workshop on Effective Meetings, one of the participants will ask, "Where's my boss?"And I say, "Your boss claimed to be an expert... Read More

Regaining Control - Nine Steps for New Managers

My client had faced the same challenge, which was frustrating as well as intimidating for him as well - yet he was determined to break the mould.With... Read More

3 Simple Things the Best Managers Do - And You Can Too!

If it's so simple, why don't managers all over the globe get this right, every time? Well, because it's so simple, it seems too easy, so busy... Read More

Counseling Interviews for the Marginal Employee

ACTIVE LISTENING: The most frequent cause of failure in therapeutic counseling interviews is the interviewer's tendency to talk too much. Numerous studies have shown that in counseling... Read More

Top Ten Tips About People Management

To get the best results you have to be very good at Managing People...and it's not as hard as you might think. Here are the secrets of... Read More

What Consultants Want You to Know (But You Never Ask)

I've been both a CEO and a consultant, so I've seen from both perspectives what goes right and what goes wrong when a consultant comes in to... Read More

ISO 9001 2000, Getting Started on The Route To Registration

ISO 9001 2000, Getting startedBefore starting the ISO 9001 2000 route to registration you will need to have the top management on board. This can be achieved... Read More

Is Your Management Style Assisting or Hurting Your Business?

Many times business owners can have significant differences in management styles that can deter the growth of both the employees and the business.Employees can have differing needs... Read More