The Leadership Challenge
In today’s time, leaders are under severe pressure to:
- deliver more with less
- be more responsive to stakeholders’ needs (customers, bosses, teams etc)
- have definitive answers to complex adaptive challenges
- be the single point of accountability
- provide high degrees of certainty to all their constituents
- keep the boards and regulators happy!
- …
The Typical Leadership Response
With the above forces at play, almost on a daily basis, it is understandable that leaders can sometime fall prey to:
- directing and managing, as opposed to leading
- operating in a mode of urgency, running from meeting to meeting (often under prepared)
- moving from fighting one “fire” to another, even when there really isn’t a fire!
- behaving in a reactive manner
- focussing on the short term priorities only
- not being present in their interactions with others
- being efficient, at the expense of being effective
In a nut shell, leaders can display “controlling” tendencies – which is a result of a thinking pattern along the lines of “If I can be across everything I need to, I can finally feel in control…”
The Consequences
Whilst the above can work for a short period of time and even create acceptable results, it becomes harder and harder to sustain over time, especially the higher up you go.
Furthermore, it comes at a high price, in the form of constraining growth, success and fulfilment for:
- yourself
- the team you lead
- the team members
Is there a better option?
Yes. But it does require the leader to think and act differently.
To think differently, the most important question a leader must ask themselves is this:
“How do I let go…even more?”
To act differently, the leader must:
- Become more comfortable with the unknown
- Redefine their job description
- Set up conditions for success
1. Become more comfortable with the unknown
- How do I become more comfortable with uncertainty?
- What might get better if I was less controlling?
- How will I feel knowing that I don’t need to have all the answers?
- …
2. Redefine your job description
- If I asked my team “what shouldn’t I be doing?” what would they say?
- What am I currently doing that I don’t like doing AND shouldn’t be doing?
- For us to be collectively successful, what must be my top 3 priorities?
- …
3. Set up conditions for success
- What conditions need to exist for us to be more successful?
- What systems are required to create the conditions identified above?
- How can I help establish the systems identified above?
- …
In conclusion, whilst the above may be simple in theory, it is not necessarily easy to implement! However, for leaders that can make this transition, the rewards are definitely worth it.
