Two Sides of the Leadership Coin

New year, new decade, let’s hope we can consign the hairy elements of 2009 to the noughties.  In the meantime, talking leadership is where it’s at (in this section, at any rate).  Thought as a starting blog for 2010, I’d explore two elements of Leadership – self-leadership and organisational leadership – which we can then mull over in more detail in further blogs.

As I see it, Self-Leadership covers both how we manage ourselves and how we present ourselves to others.  Presenting our ideas and influencing others to adopt them is vital to the success of a leader; but what elements are necessary within an individual to culminate in being a successful leader?  Authentic Leadership (see previous blog for more on this topic) is one element but what are the others?

Organisational Leadership deals with looking at the organisation’s future and positioning it to be able to survive, evolve and grow, long-term.  Enabling long-term survival and growth necessarily includes managing the short- and medium-term.  So, what skills are needed to be able to successfully lead an organisation?

As I see it, these topics are two sides of the same leadership coin.  Leaders need a sense of where they’re going and then, they need to bring others along with them.  Over the next few blogs, I’ll explore the two sides in more detail.  In the meantime, what skills and qualities do you admire in the people you consider leaders?

Authentic Leadership

The phrase “Authentic Leadership” has gained currency over the last few years but what exactly does it mean? How does “leadership” become “authentic”? Well, its probably fair to say that most people fall into leadership (e.g., senior management) roles. The route many (most?) people take is that they get a job somewhere, find out they’re pretty good at the technical stuff, get promoted, quite like the extra responsiblity/kudos and get promoted a couple more times. Sound familiar? The thing is that, for many of these people, they have a little voice somewhere within their earshot that keeps making comments such as “you’ll be found out one of these days” or “you’re never going to be able to pull this one off”. In coaching terms, this companion is called a “gremlin” and gremlins resent being told what to do. Having this negative loop playing in one’s head can have a negative impact on the manager which, at times, can severely hamper performance and decision-making. After all, making a decision with those sort of “useful insights” running around one’s head would have anyone questioning their skills and abilities; when someone else starts questioning the manager’s decisions, then the fire-works can really start. An authentic leader is one that has a strong sense of who they are and what they’re about. They have spent time understanding themselves, uncovering their beliefs and defining their values. In a nutshell, they understand what makes them tick. This provides them a stable platform to put their head above the parapet, make conscious decisions that they believe in and lead others confidently. To me, an authentic leader is one who is not “blowing in the wind”. By this, I mean someone who is consistent in their message and isn’t going to change their mind once an aspect of a plan or decision is questioned. Since an Authentic Leader has a very strong sense of self, this allows them engage fully with others by encouraging debate, welcoming criticism and incorporating changes that support the overall objectives. This in turn makes for better decisions, better implementation and better performance, as people feel they can contribute and be heard, a vitally important aspect to engaging staff. More of staff engagement anon. What’s your take on “Authentic Leadership”?

Creating Company Culture

How is “Culture” created within organisations? Well, if we start from the bottom and work our way up, staff look to their bosses and replicate what they see and what they specifically replicate are the “behaviours” that they see, the “how” things are done. This works its way up the food chain and what companies end up with is a company of people behaving in similar ways to the people at the top which, in turn, becomes the “unspoken rules about how we do things around here”, otherwise known as “the culture”. This is great if you’re at the top. You don’t have to figure out the culture, because everyone is going to copy you so your way becomes the culture…or do you? Many executives aren’t aware of either their own behaviours or that their behaviour has a huge impact on the company’s culture. They often don’t get the connection between, for example, the company always being in “fire-fighting” mode and the fact that they never take a step back and look at problems before diving in. So, many of the organisational challenges that companies face are often generated by the company’s culture. So, should executives/small business owners be more aware of their organisation’s culture and their own impact on it? Well, if the culture isn’t causing any negative impacts on the company’s ability to successfully deliver its objectives, I’d like to know the name of the company so that I can invest in it. If the culture is causing unnecessary problems which is impeding the company from being as successful as it could be, then increasing the Executive Team’s individual and collective self-awareness could be the best investment the organisation ever made. What do you think contributes to “company culture”?

The Starting Point of Leadership

Leadership, or the lack thereof, has been receiving a lot of attention over the past year but, let’s face it, it’s a fairly woolly topic.  There’s as many definitions of Leadership as there are people.  Personally, I define leadership as the ability to look forward and clearly see the future you want for your organisation, to communicate this throughout the organisation and to enable people to achieve it.

Of course, notwithstanding differences of opinion, the definition is the easiest part.  How does one actually develop themselves sufficiently to become a Leader?  With a lot of hard work – but, in the meantime, here are three key elements that good leaders develop over time:

Self-Awareness: A good leader has a very honest understanding and appreciation of who they are and what makes them tick.  They are  relatively consistent in both their behaviour and their message and are seldom swayed by the current breeze blowing e.g., they don’t keep changing their minds or take the most expedient route (because it’s easy).

Excellent Communication: Communication is made up of 3 main elements – listening, body language and asking questions.  As the saying goes, a good leader will listen and speak in the same proportion as their mouth and ears i.e., listen twice as much as they speak.  For most people, listening was not a God-given gift so, start practicing your listening skills today.

Combining Self-Awareness and Communication, another aspect of communication is the old chestnut – Actions Speak Louder than Words.  A good leader really understands that people will place way, way, way more emphasis on their actions than what they actually say.  So many Managers seem to think it’s enough to say the words and that people will accept them.  People don’t, they look for the credibility that comes with matching the actions to the words.

Take Time to Reflect: If you’re going to have a vision of the future, it makes sense that you take some time out of the day-to-day and consider what you’re trying to do.  This is not a particularly easy thing to do.  Most people are so busy with the every-day that they don’t have  time to consider the need to step back, let alone do it.

However, it’s important to schedule in time to reflect.  Put it in the diary, go somewhere quiet and start asking yourself questions such as “what am I (we) doing?”, “what am I (we) doing this for?”, “what do I (we) want to be doing?”, “will I (we) achieve that by what I (we) am currently doing?”

Being a leader takes a huge amount of energy and effort, and it can be a lonely place at times, but wouldn’t turning a dream into reality be worth it?  Answers on a postcard, or at least your thoughts in the comments section…

The Thing About Company Culture

I was browsing a discussion board recently and came across a discussion on company culture.  The general gist of one person’s post was that if you can’t feel and touch culture, there’s nothing you can really do about it so get over it and focus on the work. 

No prizes for figuring out that contributor’s “ideal culture” but it got me thinking.  Yes, culture is very woolly and intangible, yet, we can walk into a company and within 5 minutes, we can start to feel its culture (which may or may not match up with the nice Values statement on the wall). 

If I had to define “Culture”, I would define it as “the unspoken rules of how people do things around here”.  It is usually generated from the top down, although within a team or department, a more junior person may have a large impact on the culture (positively or negatively). 

The most concrete evidence that culture exists, though, is how a culture can change with a change in senior management.  One or two personnel changes can make a huge impact and completely change “the unspoken rules”.  I would like to say that the impact of such personnel changes on culture can be either positive or negative in equal measure but experience would indicate that negative cultural changes seem to sweep in and rapidly set up shop while positive cultural changes creep in and are mistrusted until proven.