Being a young leader in an expert industry

About a year ago, I took on a new role as head of a roughly 100 strong unit, looking after Outotec’s aluminium and alumina technologies globally. I was 31 at the time, and while knowing Outotec quite well, I was new to our particular industry. I decided to relocate to Germany to head the unit where most of its people are based. Recently, as a year has passed, I asked a co-worker, a well-respected long timer in our company, how she thinks things are going. Her response, although not surprising, was thought-provoking. Observations she said some colleagues have had:

-         My leadership style is less authoritative

-         I’m far less formal – and am on first name basis with everyone, although, most people who have been close colleagues for over 10 years, still refer to each other as Mr / Mrs so and so. People also wonder why I’m keen to give up my big corner office and sit closer to the team (yes, heavy industry in Germany is quite a conservative setting)

-         Above all, the fact that I’m clearly younger than this particular unit has ever seen before as a leader and from outside the industry, is ‘uncomfortable’ to many.

The feedback led me to reflect more broadly on how it’s like being a young leader, especially in a relatively slow paced and conservative industry. I listed 8 principles I have observed to be effective which I try my best to employ.

The first principle I try to stick to is to be humble in the face of experts about their fields of expertise, while trying to constantly establish the big picture in what is being discussed. For many of our people, their primary love is for their work with our customers, less about dealing with administration of a corporation. Hence, I find my role often being to try to make my team’s work easier by trying to reduce administration, remove internal roadblocks and letting them focus on their core expertise. I recently led about “servant leadership” (see e.g. Greenleaf.org) and could certainly subscribe to many of its elements.

The second principle is being honest about what you don’t know. I find that as people who have worked in the same environment talk, many notions are taking for granted and become “common knowledge”. Challenging this every now and then doesn’t hurt, and the best way to do this is to be honest about what you don’t know and ask people to clarify. It’s interesting to observe the new insights that come when people are forced to challenge their basic paradigms.

Focus on the strengths and motivations of those around you. As a professional manager, (meaning I couldn’t do practically anything my teams do everyday like engineering, technical sales, fundamental R&D work etc.),my most important job is to think about our people. Do we have the right competences, are we using our people to the best of their abilities, what is not working and why? Having the right structured approach to people related work is something I think can be done even without a long history in an industry.

Add value each and every day.  It’s healthy to reflect often whether what you’re doing, or asking your team to do, fundamentally adds value. Corporations are very good at keeping themselves busy and people can often work very long hours, but not necessarily move the bottom line at all. On the other hand, sometimes even one valuable problem solving conversation, customer call, encouraging pep talk with an employee, can make a difference. I tend to reflect at the end of each day, what was it I did today that added value, and what didn’t, and how I could avoid doing the non-value adding work going forward.

The point that probably creates most “discomfort”, is not having all the answers. I tend to employ a Problem-solving based approach to leadership as opposed to telling people what to do. Meetings where my advice is sought often turns into active whiteboarding, and together with the team trying to figure out what to do, as opposed to me drawing from experience what the correct answer is. At the same time, I’m conscious of the fact that when different scenarios have been looked at, I’m the person who finally needs to make decisions, and those decisions need to be clear and unambiguous.

Being super honest with feedback and where we are (but expect that from others too) In Jim Collins’s book, from good to great, one of my favourite parts was discussion around “candour’. A leader, while avoiding demotivation, should always be candid and honest, and not sugar coat. I try to always be very direct when giving feedback, or talking about, say where our market is or what has gone well and not well. This provokes typically a far better conversation about what to do next and also opens the door to understand how I can serve better as a leader. Of course, for some, this can also be quite uncomfortable.

Do I always adhere to the above principles? Probably not. Do I make leadership mistakes? Sure, likely more often that I’d like to admit. Do I try to continuously learn from them, absolutely. The one mistake I try not to make, however, is not being myself – trying to be someone you’re not to keep up appearances can be a real put off. I can’t avoid being younger than expected, and I’ve understood that unfortunately even that problem will subside over time. In the mean time I have grown a beard which apparently adds a few years.