~ (Mob Deep: Quiet Storm) N.B. The beat on this track is in my top ten of all time.
Leadership = the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal.
The leadership discourse over the last ten years has become increasingly prevalent across orgnisations and startups, and there is a plethora of advice and interpretations of what it means and takes, to be a true leader.
I’ve worked for 18 years in the Tech / Banking / Consultancy sectors and have led disparate and large teams globally. I’ve delivered Change Transformation projects (people and technology) and written a lot of Process documents on how to implement organisational change; whilst also reporting into 'so-called' leaders.
I would love to say I have experienced good leadership, but frankly I can say that the quality of senior management and C-suite ‘leaders’ I have encountered is pretty poor. And I have no issues with anyone who has employed me, reading this. What I say here is my opinion and the result of my experience with individuals and corporations; others may have had different perceptions of those same individuals. I gave up looking for leadership that inspired me, that made me want to emulate that person and gave me hope for positive, organisational change and a corporate culture that I want to wake up and emanate every day.
Putting aside other peoples analogies, I've come up with a couple of my own; I believe a leader needs to be able to switch between these three roles, seamlessly.
Visionary
Operator
Conductor
They also need to be adept at:
Listening
Communication
Problem solving
Decision making
It all seems pretty simple when you write it down, but in reality no-one ever seems to get it right. That’s why people like India Gary-Martin and David McQueen get paid the big bucks to ‘edumacate’ the powers that be.
Let’s break down each of these roles.
Visionary
Every company claims to have a vision and a mission. The truth is that until recently these were just sentiments that were written down in a business plan and left to fade like the transcripts in the Temple of Doom. When the new era of company culture and company ‘wokeness’ started becoming a thing in the mid 2010’s, senior management was forced to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds paying one of the ‘top fives’ to tell them what their company values were and the culture they wanted to instill in their minions. Writing vision and mission statements has been a core theme in all the startup accelerator / incubators I have taken part in as they define an organization's purpose and primary objectives, goals and aspirations. Because they explain why you exist as a business, they are supposed to be powerful and full of purpose. It's this passion and these core values that the leader is supposed to instill in it's people.
But the thing about visions and missions is that they are value driven. And who dictates these values? Unless the company is a startup and the founders are highly motivated, green with enthusiasm and laced with pure intention it's very rare and quite sad that the vision and mission statements for larger corporates have barely seen the light of day, which means most people have no idea why they are turning up for work every day - except to get paid.
Many ’Leaders’ in large companies don’t aren’t waking up every day, skipping to work driven by their desire to inspire. The drive and direction from the top, at board level is to reduce operational costs, bring on new clients and increase revenue. Until ‘Leadership Day’, the focus seems not to be about making the world a better place or creating a work environment conducive to motivation, inspiration and productivity.
I don’t know what its like to work for a Google or Apple (if you do, feel free to comment) where the company cultures appear to focus on work-life balance and hugs, but this was not my experience in the Financial and Tech Industries.
Being a visionary is so important in Leadership. Even if you aren’t the original creator of that vision, the Leader needs to believe it and know how to infiltrate it into their day to day management of their people. It’s the North Star that should underpins how teams and people are treated and communicated with. It’s what employees need to subscribe to when they wake up in the morning; its what gets people on the same page and working towards the same goal. Without them you are driving in the dark. And you are bound to kill a few deer on your journey.
Operator
A bit like a train operator you need to know what knobs and buttons to push to make your team move forwards, slow down, stop and speed up. I apologise if I am oversimplifying the job. But truth is, if you fail to operate the train well, you can kill people.
Having your finger on your team’s pulse is critical. Like individuals, teams have seasons. They shift, ebb and flow like a tide and this can be down to a number of things. Pressure to deliver, being asked to work long hours and weekends, not being shown appreciation, gratitude and reward for their efforts. One person can infect a teams morale, resentment and personality clashes can disrupt harmony.
I could write a book on team dynamics - I’ve seen it all. But the point is you need to know your teams strengths and weaknesses - individually and collectively. You need to know when to push, when to ease off, when to steer and when to give them autonomy. Getting this wrong will lead to passive and demotivated teams.
How do they solve problems together?
How they are motivated?
How can you help them to be their most efficient?
I wrote a little more about building highly effective teams here.
Conductor
A bit like an orchestra, teams are multifaceted and full of people with different skills and instruments that they know how to play. When there is no conductor standing up front them the timing is bound to be off; people aren’t in synch and unless the team is a finely tuned organism with years of playing sweet music together, chances are getting them to work effectively will be like playing Tetrus with your eyes closed.
There is a lot more human psychology and orchestration required to influence your key players and the team as a whole. You have to build relationships with your core team and establish and maintain a level of respect with the wider team in order to influence them and expect them to follow your lead. If they see you standing up front ’doing a nonsense’ and not having their backs then they won’t sing to your tune. 80pc psychology 20pc skills
But this is a tall ask. A lot of people in positions of leadership don’t understand themselves or their own motivations, let alone the motivations of their people. A lot of leaders also don’t know how to listen and engage with teams in non-transactional ways.
Some people may have progressed into a leadership role due to ‘time served’, with no training. Some have no inherent desire to build the relationships because they see their roles as ‘management’ rather than leadership. There is a big, big difference. Their focus is often on managing upwards and looking good top-down. And a lot of senior management find it hard to build these relationships because they just don’t know how, and their own leadership style is dictated by their own experiences of being ‘led’ in previous organisations they have worked in. It's like poor parenting being passed down the generations.
Building relationships can be very hard, especially when you’re dealing with different cultures and disparate teams, often remotely. And even when you are in one physical space and a small team, personal dynamics can be tricky because individuals within teams have different work ethics and values. And this is where vision and mission are so important. When you hire someone to join your company or your team, you’ve got to be on the same page with regards to WHY you are showing up every day, even if their individual drivers are different they need to be aligned and motivated by those of the company they work for. If Joe Bloggs thinks he’s playing Mozart and Jane Bloggs is reciting NWA, unless you’ve agreed you’re doing a remix, then you’ve got a problem.
Remember that your team is made up of individual people, each with their own drivers and motivations. The more you know the more you can lead them on the journey achieving that vision.
To be on the same page there needs to be humanity, understanding, respect and open (two-way) communication. Only when leaders and their teams are aligned can there be harmony in the ranks when there is an ask to work harder and longer, do more with less and focus through all the changing comms and steer that comes from above. In order for teams to be creative and find solutions, then they need to feel that what they are doing is for something bigger than their outputs and that they are worth more than the sum of their parts.
I feel like I’m being a little woo-woo here, and its very easy to oversimplify complex human relationships on paper but I am writing this in full understanding that in real-life, when you are the operator or conductor - you too have your own set of KPIs, pressures and ‘ask’s from above and its easy to forget the best ways of achieving what you want from your team. This is just a reminder and studies will back up everything I’m saying. Just google it. ;)
I will leave you with this.
You don’t need to be be in a leadership role to lead change.
Authentic leadership is leading to effect change in service of others
You should listen more than you talk
Recognise and acknowledge their achievements
Understand what your team needs to give them the autonomy and tools to deliver your vision
Do this whilst encouraging, unblocking them, supporting them, encouraging them and protecting them.
The End.
Be Brilliant.
Danielle
Really useful links:
The best book I have read on this is Simon Sinek's 'Start with Why'. Great summary here.
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