Tight-loose-tight: A balanced management strategy

When you’re looking to hand over the reins to an employee or team during a project, it’s hard to recognise when you should step back as a leader. The urge to keep a close eye on their progress is always common.

A strategy called tight-loose-tight could be the exact tool you’re looking for to understand the best ways to lead the team without being overcontrolling. It’s a management/leadership tool that offers flexibility, autonomy and freedom to your staff while keeping you in control at key periods. 

What is tight-loose-tight?

As the name suggests, there are three components to the tight-loose-tight (TLT) framework:

• Tight – The first part is the ‘why’: why does a certain task or project need to be done and why is it important to achieve the desired result? If you can provide a tight explanation at the very beginning your team will have a clear direction, a mutual understanding of shared goals and a visible reason for doing what you’re asking.
• Loose – With a firm foundation underpinning your team, it’s time to let the creative juices flow (so to speak). Here, you allow your team to take control with freedom, flexibility and autonomy to complete the task. Your presence is still important, especially if they seek feedback or input, but as a leader, you understand your team has all the tools to do it on their own and you don’t have to micromanage.
• Tight – Once the project nears completion, the third part of TLT comes into play. Now it’s your turn to step back into the picture and assess how everything is going. This is the time for reviewing, analysing, fault-finding, fixing, etc. Your employees have put their own spin on the task but it’s your stamp of approval that ensures it has addressed the ‘why’.

What are the benefits?

The tight-loose-tight leadership strategy is incredibly impactful when you want to empower staff and allow them to take the lead. This approach results in both short-term and long-term benefits that will set up your team – and the business as a whole – for success.

Tight

A tight approach where you inform, educate and support staff right from the start has countless benefits. First, it shows they have a leader who is transparent, communicative and present. You’re not just there to set a task and leave.

Second, you can see whether they’re aligned with your goals, or not. Consider when a task has been set and someone asks if there are any more questions: often there are some blank faces but staff don’t want to ask for clarification because they’re not aligned or engaged. But if you can effectively share your vision through value-driven leadership, your employees will be more invested.

Loose

The loose aspect of TLT is all about employee benefits as providing autonomy allows employees to tap into their creativity and innovation. For example, let’s step onto the floor of a residential aged care facility where a resident has started to show signs of disinterest in socialising at meal times. You work together with an employee to discuss changes in behaviour and potential causes, but you give them the freedom to create solutions on their own. 

This can give your team member a chance to become more engaged with their work and put their own knowledge to the test. They can talk to the resident directly to find out more about them, collaborate with other staff, and then report back to you with their ideas. There’s far more incentive compared to just being told what to do.

Tight

The benefit of a ‘tight’ finish to any project is that you, as a leader, have the chance to provide constructive feedback. So rather than taking their work and removing them from the process, you reconnect with the team, review their work and refine it if necessary. You have continued to provide clarity while respecting the autonomy that has been afforded to employees.

Is TLT always applicable?

A tight-loose-tight strategy is easily applicable to any scenario, meaning that it can become a key part of your leadership style – if it isn’t already. Democratic leaders who appreciate collaboration already incorporate key TLT elements, while emerging leadership styles such as distributed leadership are reflected in the ‘loose’ component where responsibilities are comfortably shared elsewhere.

The TLT strategy can also be used in team settings or individually, making it a flexible approach to managing projects or tasks. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, either, as tight-loose-tight is easy when you remember the goal is to manage results, not people. If you give your staff time to shine, their development will reflect positively on you.