Is it you or is it me?

The critical importance of informed leadership -by Marni Stevenson

I stumbled across a great message the other day; 'Are you informed or merely opinionated'? It made me stop dead in my tracks and question how many times in my own lifetime I have offered a view that was influenced more by my own small brain bandwidth than any informed or well-considered research or evidence? Guilty. While our thoughts, opinions and perspectives make up our identity and provide each of us with our 'colour', our 'flavour' and the richness of our personality, I wonder how often our opinions lead us by the nose, to make decisions in such a way that they more closely resemble reactions rather than considered responses? More than we care to admit, I'd say.

I have written often, in previous articles, about the importance of leaders cultivating, with great intentionality, self-reflection and engaging in self-insight-making. Reflecting on 'self' is one thing. Drawing meaning from that process is another. Adapting, correcting, self-regulating, modifying, 'stretching' and experimenting with new behaviours is another level altogether. I'm not sure that anyone of us engages in this nearly often enough and if we do, we seem to be driven to comply to some unwritten rule, to keep our 'inner work' to ourselves for fear this admission might make us vulnerable to criticism, judgement or we might be seen somehow, to be lacking. If, as leaders, we are not modelling such behaviours, how do we possibly imagine that our people will be inclined to become agentic, reflective and remain curious? If we are not speaking of our learning journey and illuminating the path for others, why would our people feel compelled to engage in this level of self-discovery either? We've got to do the work, leaders.

Unconscious bias, prejudices and fixed mindsets are what I classify as 'high-risk mental activity' in organisations who wish to be seen as progressive, inclusive, fair and ethical. Despite what we might think, saying something does not make it so. Plaques espousing organisational values in foyers or messages on water bottles DO NOT convince people of our values nor beliefs. Our behaviour, on the other hand, does. Leaders need to do their inner work. There is no way around this, I'm afraid. If our opinions become the dominant driver of our decision making as leaders, we are all in trouble. If opinions rather than evidence and research is driving decision making in leaders and the environment is permissive of such behaviour then we may also be decreasing psychological safety and inclusiveness in a workplace. A leader making a decision based on holding tight to a particular opinion rather than examining multi-dimensional perspectives, data and evidence may make some poor decisions around job design, wellbeing, inclusionary practices and increase psychosocial risks in an organisation. Strategy too may be executed with little people-centricity, an absence of system-thinking or a lack of consideration of the 'intangibles/invisibles', if a limited opinion or fixed mindset dominates.

The self-work for leaders is a life-long commitment. It's not for the faint-hearted, I'm afraid. The more we know about how the brain works the better. The more we engage in self-discovery the better. The more we act courageously as leaders, to surface our fixed-mindsets, our unhelpful behaviours or thought patterns and release our unconscious biases, the more effective and transformative we will become as leaders. Our responsibility to be the best we can be for our people is monumental. Our opinions may not be truths. Our opinions may not be kind. Our opinions may not be helpful. Our opinions may not be values-based. Our opinions may not serve us nor others well. We have a job to do as leaders. Our job is to be sufficiently brave and agentic; to cultivate our observational brains. To do the detection work. If need be, the correction work. Less ego. More we-go.