October Leadership Insights

This month I’m hoping to help you take that step back.  See things for how they really are…or how they could be.  And perhaps I may just get you to take a bit of that self-imposed pressure off your shoulders as well. The idea of leadership is a loaded concept.  Loaded with what others think you should be doing, loaded with what your organisation thinks you should be doing…and worst of all (sometimes) what we think we should be doing.  Ironically, I’m here again this month sharing ideas for what you could be doing differently; and I say to you…take it or leave it. Or…land somewhere in the middle and do what you feel works for you.  That’s what works for me.

Three things we were reminded of this month

Recalibrating requires Re-storming.  Are you recalibrating the way your team or organisation works?  Then don’t for one minute assume that you will remain in the Performing stage of team development.  You will need to regress, even if it’s just for a bit, to the stage of Storming as the team members work out what it means to be working together in whatever new format you are trialling.  How you work together in a hybrid or fully face to face format will be different to remote.  Transitioning will require some re-establishing of the unspoken team rules and rituals.  Leading from a position of Performing when the team is re-Storming will be a headache – as much for you as it will be the team.  It’s ok to let the team know they are re-Storming.  In fact that may just take the pressure off their shoulders as much as your own.  

Building Engagement Takes Time.  As a leader we like the idea that we have an engaged team.  Of course we want this; we know the lift we get in performance when we have emotional engagement and not just functional engagement.  But we can become unstuck when we push hard for engagement in the team without acknowledging that it takes time…and that not everyone will be ready…even if we are.  And that’s ok.  Make your peace with this and you will feel the weight of pressure lift off your shoulders.  Sometimes the biggest block to building engagement comes when we are forcing something that just isn’t ready to happen.

Don’t Mistake Questions for Resistance in Times of Change. If we are leading change we want it to work right? We want our people on board and we want to get the new ways of working embedded.  And things can be on track…but then there’s the question from left field that threatens to derail the process.  Or, there could be questions right from the word go…questioning why, questioning how, questioning the legitimacy of the change.  But, being the creatures that we are, we have the power of choice.  We can choose to see the questions as blockers and coming from a place of resistance. Or, we can choose to see them coming from a place of curiosity or wanting to make sense of the change in the context of their world.  Most times it’s actually the latter that’s playing out. It’s not resistance.  It’s about safety. Assurance. Wanting to know (why, how, who etc…).  Maybe it’s us who needs to reframe how we ‘hear’ the question.

Two Reads this month

Book:  Atomic Habits, James Clear, Avery 2018  

One of the biggest challenges for leaders is creating the habits that support effective leadership. For example, creating the discipline for reflection, or more broadly, being consistent in how we do what we do.  “James Clear, an expert on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. He draws on proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible.”

Book: The Boss, Andrew O’Keefe, Greenleaf Book Group; 2nd edition 2009

Hands up those who have had a crappy boss?  Hands up those who have had learned so much about leadership by observing or having a terrible manager?  Ok, ok…hands down!  If our first read this month is about learning how to create a habit for reflection, then let this read feed into this flow and offer you the opportunity to self-reflect, analyse and contribute to the development of your own healthy leadership practice.  Andrew O’Keefe has published two amazing books that you need to read.  Start with this one then progress to the second (Hardwired Humans) for which The Boss tills the soil.  “The book tells a story about the impact of work on the human spirit. Lauren Johnson is a talented marketing professional in her thirties who changes jobs to escape the torment of a horrid manager. But her dream job turns sour due to the erratic behaviour of the dysfunctional executive team. Lauren just wants to do her job, but is constantly obstructed by the intimidating tactics of some managers, or the compliant behaviour of others, until finally, she has to respond or have her spirit crushed. Underpinning the story are two leadership concepts. The first is our hardwired instincts as humans and the second is the leadership model from Human Synergistics: the boss characters are either constructive, passive or aggressive managers.”

One Update from us

We have updated our suite of matrix programs, and renamed two of them:

• Passport to Collaboration Success 
• The Collaborative Leader

If you are looking to develop the effectiveness of your team or leaders in matrix, global or complex organisations then reach out for more information…or go to https://www.pontevalle.com/matrix--collaboration.html 

This month did you…

Think about who you are as a leader? Wonder whether there were moments when you could have done things differently? Celebrate the things you did well?  All of these are aspects of reflecting…so…did you take some time out to reflect?