From Meaningful Management to Laudable Leadership
As many a manager will attest, the move from doer to manager isn’t straightforward. A major hurdle is that of resisting temptation to continually do work rather than manage others in their doing of the work. A chief reason for this is that we each do work differently. When we see someone do something we know how to do and do it differently, it’s easy to assume their method is less effective. This can trigger a desire to step in to ensure success.
Whilst understandable, we should resist the temptation; this is a case where intuition is (usually) wrong. Consider delivery of an item from point A to point B, where point B is diagonally opposite point A on a square. That I would turn right then left is no more, or less, efficient than someone else turning first left then right. Both result in effective delivery. Any discomfort experienced is simply a manifestation of bias. In this case, anchoring bias. So, instead, I would do better to interpret my discomfort as an alert to look for bias and use it to learn and grow.
Discomfort is an inhibitor, a signal to watch for bias ??
Personal discomfort also exists in the transition to leadership. We must try on new versions of ourselves.
The power of experimentation
In her book “Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader”, Herminia Ibarra emphasises the importance of action and experimentation in shaping one's leadership identity.
Experimentation is a central tenet of the agile movement, encapsulated nicely by the term “fail fast.” Treat everything as an experiment and if something isn’t working, drop it and move on, rather than continue to commit resource to something that is already faltering.
But how does one know what practices to experiment with in leadership? You could try donning a military uniform and barking orders at people–that would certainly be an experiment, but perhaps one best left in the realm of “don’t try this at home/the office”.
Taking Ibarra’s advice and pairing it with the fail fast mantra means you won’t know if something works until you try it. As you try more things, you'll learn what works and what doesn’t; you'll hone your skill.
A refined skillset is the definition of a craft. In other words, leadership is a craft that we must learn. Craftmanship grows with maturity of ability. Let’s say tomorrow you pick up a saxophone for the first time. Your skill as a saxophonist can be described as immature. With practice it will mature, possibly to the point where the neighbours start to enjoy the evening performances in the back stairwell ??
The role of risk in development
Immature leadership frequently manifests as self-preservation. Mature leadership involves taking risks and taking risks is uncomfortable. Management, on the other hand, is much more about control. This has a huge influence on why some companies describe themselves as risk averse–their leadership is often managing instead of leading. Thus, does risk aversion realise risk.
Risk taking drives progress. Without it, we stagnate and create environments that nobody enjoys working in. Indeed, whole businesses can fail due to stagnation. So, one thing to keep in mind when becoming a leader is that you should embrace the discomfort of personal risk-taking and learning how to take a calculated risk versus a reckless one (another skill that will be honed with practice).
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Risk aversion is one of the biggest drivers of risk realisation
Good leadership inspires and motivates (hence, we don’t recommend dressing up in military fatigues and barking orders). Inspiration and motivation require emotional engagement, helping people understand why a goal or different way of working is important and why making changes in their approach to work is a good thing. That requires allowing people to experiment and feel safe in doing so.
To help people feel safe, celebrate failures made in the honest pursuit of departmental or organisational goals and treat them for what they are: shared learning experiences. There is a risk here that some may feel a goal to be unachievable and actively resist its pursuit. This not only creates a risk to the goal but also that resistance reflects on the leader, i.e. contagion risk.
Motivation and team dynamics
There is no guarantee you can motivate and inspire every member of a team and you should not expect to. The risk of encountering resistance is high, especially for new leaders where dynamics between leader and team are still being negotiated and where someone in the team may not agree with the company’s selection of leader. To overcome this resistance, create clear goals (the what) and align these with incentives and rewards. Don’t just focus what is being asked of the team; ensure you’re clear on why it’s important.
Whilst it’s important for a leader to be clear on the what and why, let the team define the how. Work collaboratively. Get everyone involved. Allow debate. Encourage diversity of views. Don’t be afraid to steer if things go off track. Keep in mind that people will take different routes and use different methods to achieve a goal. Then, reward people for healthy behaviour. You could give gift vouchers or even simple praise for people and teams exhibiting collaborative behaviour.
Conclusion
To lead, requires learning on the job which creates a level of discomfort, which requires courage within yourself to learn to trust that by continually learning you will improve as a leader.
By continually experimenting and learning you will improve as a leader
We’ve covered some of the basics of transitioning to become a leader. It's a complex subject which means we’ve only scratched the surface. There are many factors involved in leadership and it differs from management in many other ways.
We’d love to hear your experiences of transitioning into leadership. Let us know in the comments, below????