Out of firefighting mode

Article by Carmel Millar and Jannie Stricker        

The leadership role

Imagine, a workplace where you have the time you need to do your job as a leader. Imagine, you are not stressed because you have the time to take care of your people such that they are able to take good care of the actual job, customers, colleagues, etc. How many of you reading this article, recognise this as your daily reality?

This article/ blog is for you who struggle with lack of time, maybe it is time for an internal check of what you spend your time on during the day.?

Don’t let the fray of the day get in the way

Why is it, that we as leaders feel we do not have the time to do the job of taking care of others? The fast pace and urgency of the day-to-day running of the business can shoe-horn leaders into firefighting mode. The focus easily becomes one of trying to solve all the problems in the team, not delegating new tasks, and driving oneself to work even harder and longer. This is the start of a negative spiral.

As leaders, we can convince ourselves that not delegating to others is the best option; “I don’t want to burden them with extra work” or “It’s quicker do it myself than to explain it to others”. But is that the real reason for not delegating? Maybe our ego gets in the way? We can get a lot of praise for finding quick solutions to problems. Staying in ‘doing’ mode, however, can potentially strip our team of the experience of finding their own way through a difficult challenge.

A more important question to ask is “who will it benefit when I, the leader, do not delegate”? If you work in an organisation, where you have worked your way up, you have learned that you need to show what you are capable of and demonstrate that you can be trusted to do your job. However, now you are the leader, and your role has changed, the job is different – maybe ask yourself, how do I make sure my team is performing at their best? Think about how we learn - most of us do want to learn new things, even when that means we make mistakes along the way.

If all our leaders are constantly focused on ‘what to fix’, then who is focusing on what to grow? If they are habitually thinking about today’s problem, symptoms, and solutions, then who is thinking about the bigger picture and how the organisation can be the best it can be? And if everyone is working on what’s in front of them, then who is looking over the horizon?

There is a personal price to pay for trying to juggle everything. When we are stressed, research shows that our brains are affected, memory loss and regulation of our mood are common (Lupien, Juster, Raymond, & Marin, 2018). We become overwhelmed and emotionally drained. Our everyday responsibilities and problems seem impossible to overcome, so we default to the familiarity of busyness. Relationships at work can suffer because we can become disconnected.?In those circumstances, our reflex reaction can be "when I get control, I’ll be fine".?Controlling time is an impossible dream, however!

So where do we find the solution to manage our stress? What story do we tell ourselves – about what we need to do?

"Being strategic?"

How often have we said to ourselves, exasperatedly "I need to be ‘more strategic in order to gain more time to do my job!". What does that even mean? We all know we want to get ourselves out of the so-called ‘weeds’, but are we ever really clear about what being strategic actually means, and are we ready to do the work we have to do to change our behaviours??

If we aren’t clear on this, what’s to stop us coming into work tomorrow and just doing the same as we did yesterday? As Henry Ford supposedly once said, if we continue to do what we have always done, we will only get what we’ve always got. We must try something different, to produce a different outcome.

Here are 5 key ways in which we can shift the balance towards a more strategic focus.

1.?????Connect with your organisation’s context

Know the wider internal and external world your business inhabits.?Step away from the familiarity of problem-solving and shift into the uncertainty of curiosity and enquiry mode. Dialogue widely and listen to others’ perspectives to do this. The answers to your organisation’s success lie beyond your everyday experiences. Step back and share ideas with others so that bigger thinking can emerge.

Strategic leaders influence and impact upwards and outwards as well as across their organisations. They have a voice that can influence across hierarchical boundaries because it is expressed honestly and in an appreciative way, avoiding manipulation. Their message is attractive, not coercive. They come across as rational and factual but also take people’s feelings and emotions into account.

2.?????Figure out the right things to do and have a go.

The culture and the systems we work within can pressurise us to fix the biting issue that presents today. However, adopting an enquiry mindset, looking for better - indeed the best – helps divert our attention towards the right thing to do. This is not necessarily the one that’s popular or understood right now but change and understanding can happen when decisions are communicated clearly. Leaders need the courage to step outside the comfort of focusing on problem-solving and today’s leaders need trust from those who follow them.

3.?????Ask powerful questions

When people come to us with a problem, our reflex reaction is to advise them what to do. This is our ‘advice trap’ or ‘advice monster’; it drives us to give advice (saving time) instead of listening and staying curious (Stanier, 2020).?However, sometimes our advice may not be helpful. How often have you followed the advice you didn’t ask for? Sometimes, we’re providing a solution to the wrong problem.

Try applying a coaching approach - switching from ‘tell’ to ‘ask’ and ‘listen’ mode and ask great inquiry questions, such as:

?·????????Tell me more about that

·????????What are your thoughts?

·????????What have you tried so far?

·????????What worked?

·????????What didn’t?

·????????Do you understand the reasons behind that?

·????????If you were to do ‘that’, what might be different?

·????????What would the impact be?

·????????If you were advising yourself, what would you say?

4.?????Delegate tasks and support others to carry them out – stay with the coaching approach and ‘catch people when they stumble’.

Let’s say you’ve delegated the problem with the power to resolve it, to others. You then apply a coaching approach, enabling them to discover and take risks to find the right solution. Think about what leadership is - at the beginning of this article we defined it as “taking care of your people – so they can take care of the job/task”.

When you apply a coaching approach where you delegate and support, it will call for more of that precious commodity we never seem to have enough of e.g., the time to engage and influence those around you. To comfort and steady nerves, allowing space for people to do their growing and learning. This means resisting the strong urge to ‘take the ball back’ and do it yourself which would breach the trust your team placed in you.

5.?????Be willing to take risks

When we step out of the familiar into the unknown, we need courage. Think about how you make decisions. Normally, we carry out the due diligence we have been trained to do. We have trusted conversations that help us weigh up the consequences. Values and ethics, personal as well as organisational, play a strong role when making decisions that affect others. But what if we start asking questions to people who may not necessarily share our views? If we are willing to change our minds, taking the risk of a new approach – what kind of leader do you think you will become? As Adam Grant (2021) writes “It’s easy to see the appeal of a confident leader who offers a clear vision, a strong plan, and a definitive forecast for the future. But in times of crisis as well as times of prosperity, what we need more is a leader who accepts uncertainty, acknowledges mistakes, learn from others and rethink plans (p.249).

How we can help

We are two dynamic coaches that blend together our different skills, experience, and personality types to help senior leaders surmount their toughest challenges and grow from them.

We help leaders find their confidence and self-belief to boost the scale of their strategic and personal impact and influence. We build on your strengths and our methods are in line with the science of positive psychology, whether using one-to-one coaching or through team facilitation. Our approach blends our on-the-ground business experience at a senior level with our positive psychology and coaching psychology expertise plus a combined total of 25 years senior coaching experience.?

Contact us:

Carmel Millar: [email protected]

Jannie Stricker: [email protected]

References

Arnsten AF. (2009)Stress signalling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function. Nat Rev Neurosci. 06;10(6):410-22.

Berne, E. (2001) Transactional Analysis in psychotherapy: the classic handbook to its principles. London: Souvenir Press Ltd.

Centre for creative leadership article. How to become a strategic leader. Retrieved from;?https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/how-to-become-a-strategic-leader/

Cooperrider, D.L. & Whitney, D. (2007) Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237404587

Eurich,T (2017) – Insight: The Power of Self-Awareness in a Self-Deluded World. London, Macmillan

Goleman, D. (2013). The Focused Leader – retrieved from:?https://hbr.org/2013/12/the-focused-leader

Grant, A. (2021) Think again: The power of knowing what you don’t know. Penguin Random House

?Lupien, S. J., Juster, R. P., Raymond, C., & Marin, M. F. (2018). The effects of chronic stress on the human brain: From neurotoxicity, to vulnerability, to opportunity. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology. Academic Press Inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yfrne.2018.02.001

Neto, I.R. (2018) - Intuition and wisdom in decision making. National Council for Scientific and Technical Development, Brazil.

Shields, G.S., Sazma, M.A., and Yonelinas, A.P. (2016). The Effects of Acute Stress on Core Executive Functions: A Meta-Analysis and Comparison with Cortisol.

Stanier, M. B. (2020). The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever. Box of Crayons.

Stoltzfus, T (2008) – Coaching Questions - Coaching Questions: A Coach's Guide to Powerful Asking Skills. Virginia Beach, VA.

Whitney, et al (2013) – Encyclopaedia of Positive Questions Using Appreciative Inquiry to Bring Out the Best in Your Organization. Lakeshore Communications

Wilding, M. (2020). Forbes Article How to be a more strategic thinker. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/melodywilding/2020/06/01/how-to-be-a-more-strategic-thinker/?sh=33d144ae37e6

????????????