As February comes to an end, exciting things are happening both here in Cheyenne and statewide.

While Wyoming’s legislature continues a challenging budget session, four bills related to Blockchain technology have been making their way through the legislature. While blockchains can be a bit difficult to understand, advocates say that making Wyoming a leader in this technology has the potential to attract blockchain startups, improve business efficiencies and diversify the state’s economy. The Align Team had the opportunity to listen to a panel of blockchain experts (and advocates) at the Wyoming Economic Development Association winter conference and the enthusiasm for the technology (and the accompanying legislation) was contagious.

In other exciting news, Cheyenne Mayor Marion Orr announced that the city has been named one of 35 Champion City finalists in Bloomberg Philanthropies 2018 Mayors Challenge. The city’s proposal rose to the top of a competitive pool of more than 320 applications. The plan is to catalyze a revitalization of the downtown core by matching owners of underutilized commercial properties with entrepreneurs. Cheyenne now receives $100,000 for a 6-month testing phase of the competition, and opportunity to earn a $1 million award if it is selected as one of four finalists. We’re excited to see what collaborations might emerge out of this opportunity.

Last month, we introduced you to Align’s newest team member, consultant Andy Worshek. Since joining The Align Team, Andy has brought his expertise in Intent-Based Leadership to the Wyoming Economic Development Association winter conference and High West Energy. This month, we’d like to introduce one key concept of Intent-Based Leadership:

Giving control to create leaders, instead of taking control and forging followers.

As Andy explains, hundreds of years of leadership theory has conditioned business leaders to take control. Conventional wisdom says that you’re a better leader if you have more followers.

“I think that’s upside down,” Andy says. “I think you’re a better leader if you create more leaders. Giving control to others is when you create more leaders in an organization.”

While many leaders have achieved considerable success by creating followers. The problem, however, is that they’re not leaving many leaders in their wake.

“People are often afraid that if I give control to someone below me in an organization, that I’m no longer important,” Andy continues. “But if you’re planning for the future, you’re actually benefiting your organization by creating a second wave of leaders.”

The key to success lies in ensuring that team members have the technical knowledge and organizational clarity to handle the responsibility they have been given control of.  This can be a challenge for traditional leaders, who are conditioned to take control. The key is to hand over control of small things first. Find an assignment or duty that if something goes wrong will not create chaos, but still allows your team to demonstrate their competence and clarity.