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Common myths about leadership indicate a need to demystify the concept of leadership by introducing managers early on to practical steps that will help them start their transition towards becoming an excellent leader. Jennie Kettlewell, executive coach with MaST International, a learning and development consultancy, says the focus of development should be on what actually in practice
‘Leadership ’ is all too often a concept that strikes fear into the hearts of those expected to lead. It is not surprising really, especially when we hear a potential leader told by her boss to: "go and be inspiring".
Having coached many executives who have been tasked with becoming better leaders, I notice that their challenge is to understand exactly what this means and what they should be doing differently. Many find it just too hard to make the link between what they perceive of great leaders and the practical steps business leaders need to take to help their followers see a better future and rally them towards it.
This confusion often shows itself as a reluctance to lead, so that HR professionals in the UK claim it is hard to find senior leaders from within their companies, resulting in a huge cost for external recruitment.
The starting point is to dispel some common leadership myths. - Leadership is something you just step into with a new role.
- It’s only top management that needs to lead (my boss, not me...).
- Following one of the leadership models will be sufficient to become an excellent leader.
Transition not transplant
Becoming a leader is a transition, rather than something one achieves overnight. It doesn’t come complete with a new title or role. In fact, some leadership skills are required from junior manager level upwards and the transition to being an excellent leader happens as new skills are learned and honed by experience. It frequently comes as a welcome surprise to reluctant leaders to find that they are already employing leadership skills and they just haven’t noticed.
In a business with a clear vision and set of strategic priorities, the energy for success comes from the middle of the company. The board cannot do it all themselves. So organisations need leaders at all levels to help their teams identify with the big picture and motivate them to align their work with the corporate strategy. This can be for direct report teams, project teams or virtual teams. Some of the best leaders I have encountered have had no team at all but have lead with a great idea, rallying people to support it so that it comes to fruition.
Practical tip
A good coach will help the leader reframe their beliefs about their right to lead, wherever they sit in the organisation. A ‘trim tab’ is a useful metaphor to get managers thinking about how their relatively small leadership efforts can make a big difference. Think about what makes a big tanker start to turn. It’s the rudder. But the water creates strong resistance, so there’s this device called a trim tab set into the rudder. It is like a miniature rudder which doesn’t create much resistance so it pulls the whole rudder around. It creates all that effect with relatively little effort. So it is helpful to suggest managers think of themselves as ‘trim tab leaders’, which is a small step with appeal because it is something managers believe they can do.
Personal brand as a leader
One of the most depressing comments I have heard was: "I don’t want to learn leadership skills because I have my own style. I don’t want to be turned into a ‘jelly mould’ type of leader, where we all have the same style."
Fortunately, the unique combination of experience, personal values and skills mean that each leader is different, with their own personal brand of leadership. It does not mean that they shouldn’t learn new skills but, by consciously creating their own personal brand as a leader, they can be both authentic and credible. Coaching can help leaders to understand how their brand is made up and how they can make it clear exactly what they stand for.
Practical tip
A personal value is an enduring belief about the way things should be done or about ends we desire. Values are principles that are intrinsically important to us and guide all our decisions and actions. They tend to remain relatively stable though may shift at different stages in our life. To be truly credible, a leader needs to make it clear exactly what he or she stands for and then demonstrate it consistently. When we act and think consistently with our values, others see us as demonstrating credibility, honesty and integrity.
A budding leader can explore the answers to the following questions: - What do you most care about?
- What are your strongly held beliefs about yourself and your work?
- What are you discontent about?
- What brings you suffering?
- What makes you jump for joy?
- What are you passionate about?
- What keeps you awake at night?
- What do you want from your life?
- Just what is it you really care about?
Building blocks
Once the myths have been dispelled and the potential leader sees that leadership is achievable through a number of very practical building blocks, the reluctance disappears and leadership becomes quite an appealing prospect. The building blocks will be different for each person.
Two of the building blocks worth mentioning are ‘emotional intelligence’ and bringing the big picture alive for the team.
We know, because we are told so often, that we need to understand ourselves before we can seek to create positive relationships with others. What makes us tick, what makes us default to one style of leadership over another? When we understand more about that, we can choose to learn and use other styles, as appropriate for the situation.
Practical tip
Experience shows that one of the more practical sets of styles is the one outlined by Daniel Goleman, psychologist and corporate consultant. The six styles are clearly described, explaining the associated behaviours and the types of business situations each style is best suited for. Each style springs from different aspects of emotional intelligence. They are easy to understand and allow managers to identify with what they can learn now to start their transition to leadership.
The leaders who get the most positive results are able to use any of the six styles. Goleman maintains that, with practise, leaders can switch among leadership styles to produce powerful results, thus turning the mysterious art of leadership into a practical science. The style names and brief descriptions will resonate with anyone who is learning to lead. - Directive leaders demand immediate compliance.
- Visionary leaders mobilise people toward a vision.
- Affiliative leaders create emotional bonds and harmony.
- Participative leaders build consensus through participation.
- Pacesetting leaders expect excellence and self-direction.
- Coaching leaders develop people for the future.
An experiec nced coach can help someone understand their default style or styles and the resulting impact on followers. The next stage is to start learning the styles that are less natural to the manager and therefore used less often.
What does a leader do?
So now our leader has a pretty good idea how to behave as a leader but, back in the workplace, what does a leader actually do?
Many employees, at some level, have insecurities about the future and the unknown and this is fuelled by constant change and the uncertainties of modern business life. Effective leaders are able to transform our fear of the unknown into confidence in the future even when they cannot themselves be sure of what that future will be. By providing an island of clarity in the midst of chaos, leaders enable their teams to focus on getting the job done.
The role of a leader is to help people see a better future and assist them towards it. How often have you seen that ‘better future’, or vision, written as a rather uninspiring set of words? It may mean something logically, but it has no real meaning or appeal for the individuals who are supposed to work towards it.
Practical Tip
Excellent leaders bring the vision alive for the teams through appealing to all the senses and making it vivid, memorable, motivating and engaging. They use words or pictures to create an image people can carry round in their heads: storytelling, metaphors, graphics, symbols, examples, humour, sound, quotes.
We can all recognise a situation where there is a big subject team members feel it is important to discuss. Each person hopes someone else will raise the matter, but does not say anything for fear of upsetting someone, causing embarrassment or being made to look stupid. This can happen even when the topic is critical to the success of the team or organisation. The financial results are poor, but it’s explained away as a ‘blip’ in performance. It can happen in small teams, large teams or indeed boards of directors.
Excellent leaders don’t wait until a ‘difficult subject’ turns into a major problem. They raise it early and deal with it. Handled constructively, without blame, these undiscussables can be a real source of learning. Check http://www.mast.co.uk/pages/news/news.php" title="http://www.mast.co.uk/pages/news/news.php" target="_blank"http://www.mast.co.uk/pages/n...
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