A process for leading self, leading others and partnering

Leadership is fundamentally about having the discipline to consciously pursue personal growth, while genuinely caring about helping others become a greater version of themselves. A lot has been written about skills needed to be a leader, hence I would like to look at the process of leadership in this article.

The process of Leading Self

To be a good leader, one recognizes the need to elevate their own strengths, tide over weakness and explore new skills. By climbing out of own comfort zone, leaders are able to effectively guide others in their journey towards full potential.

“Inside each of us are two separate personas- there’s the leader/planner who plans to change his or her ways. And there’s the follower/doer who must execute the plan”- Dr. Marshall Goldsmith

• Self-reflection and a personal SWOT, to best leverage own Strengths, being mindful of personal Weakness, actively pursuing Opportunities to develop while being alert on the Threats that could topple progress. This is possible by remaining open to feedback especially constructive feedback, conscious awareness of market/industry trends, exploring radical ideas and being less judgemental. To be an effective leader, one must have an ardent need to keep progressing towards a higher version of self.
• Learning loop and a growth mindset, to steadily expand on skills by (i) continually learning, (ii) applying new skills, (iii)) validating results, (iv) adjusting approach and repeating the cycle till the next level of expertise. It is also important to identify a few behaviour traits to improve by seeking 360-degree feedback and committing to daily actions to ensure progress. Given that behavioural changes are the most difficult ones for an adult to go through, it is good to have an accountability partner here.
• Disciplined execution, where the leader delivers a unique contribution which makes a significant difference to the end result. Being a role model, the leader is to stimulate passion, establish a moral high ground, align focus on end goals, marshal smart collaboration, take calculated risks and be resilient across the many setbacks the team may face. Given the tough choices and complex tradeoff’s expected from a modern leader, I have found principles of design thinking - listen, ideate, prototype, validate, iterate - as an effective action biased execution model.

The process of leading others

By understanding the uniqueness of each individual, a good leader works hard to align the business objectives with the growth aspirations of its team members and inspire them to deliver to their full potential.

Human is not a resource! Each person is unique with their own aspirations, goals, experience, skills, circumstances, and challenges. Recognizing this is at the core of all leadership thinking!

• Understand the business role and differentiate the role from the person behind it. Get a good hang of the role (job) description, how it fits into the overall structure of the business, key expectations on the role, the skills required, impact on results, short/long term priorities, etc. Also, focus on how the role expectations will evolve in the future with broader dependencies and collaboration needs from/on the role. It is important to bring clarity and alignment on the role expectations among stakeholders and team members.
• Understand the person at a deeper level with a focus on their skills, expertise, past results, current engagement level, contribution, personal circumstances, aspirations, resilience, the potential to grow and current comfort zone. Next step is to Recognize the potential of the person and to inspire them to be truly excited about a realistic and much greater version of themselves. Leaders should help others to better articulate their concept of a ‘Desired Self’ and galvanize them to take disciplined action to develop the essential skills, attitude and behaviors to reach their ‘Desired Self’.
• Support the journey towards ‘Desired Self’ by facilitating 360-degree feedback and a personal development plan covering training, coaching and on the job assignments (custom targets to exceed expectations in the current role, stretch assignments to prepare for ideal next role, etc). Comprehensive follow-ups and stakeholder report out must be planned at frequent intervals. There are often aspects of a role that a person may not be motivated to deliver for various reasons, these must be transparently discussed and jointly addressed to ensure minimal business impact.

The process of partnering with others

Modern leadership success significantly depends on the success of strong partnerships and collaborative win-win-win pursuits. Partnerships can be external (customers, suppliers, universities, competitors, etc) or internal ( peers, functions, business, regions, etc).

The process of building and elevating strong partnerships involve the following:

• Understand the mutual business impact including short/ long term priorities and importance of the partnership for each other. Also, invest time in understanding the upstream/ downstream impact of the partnership
• Evaluate the persons responsible for relationship management and accountable for key deliverables in both sides - take time to understand the roles, their performance objectives, expertise, and individual aspirations. Invest in relationship building and active two-way performance management.
• Build a one team identity with jointly established win-win-win (win for both parties and the broader community) performance milestones, aligned priorities and complimenting strategic objectives.
• Build a robust governance framework covering modern communication channels, partnership health reviews, real-time insightful reports, intuitive escalation process, technology, innovation funnel, landscape analysis, and others.
• Deliver to the journey with an ongoing focus on partnership health, results delivered, active course corrections, and optimal engagement across the various organization levels.

Suggested reading for deep dives

• Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts--Becoming the Person You Want to Be also viewed by Dr. Marshall Goldsmith
• Great at Work: The Hidden Habits of Top Performers by Morten T. Hansen
• The Best Team Wins: The New Science of High Performance by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain