Powerful leadership Capabilities for now and next
So what! We must work with complexity and this new dynamic operating context using a new blend of capabilities, the ‘super powers’ we need to lead now and next.
1. Work well with purpose - Understand individuals differences and drivers and work with these alongside organisational values and purpose finding the places where these coexists well and collide to bring exceptional energy and drive – Unilever have been doing this for a long time introducing “Find Your Purpose” workshops for all employees and introducing ‘life fit’ planning as a more holistic look. Exploring above and beyond the more traditional personal development plans and annual reviews at how work supports peoples life aspirations.
2. Navigate uncertainty well – With certainty in short supply operating when all the answers aren’t known and the situation is dynamic is a key skill. a starting point is understanding our own tolerance to uncertainty. There’s a great free self -test on the Uncertainty Experts website and it’s a good place to start. https://www.uncertaintyexperts.com/quiz . And when leading others being able to offer a balanced narrative to change and uncertainty is essential. We have over the years created a large amount of negative language around change uncertainty giving balance to this will help us lead others not ignoring the human responses that have been well researched but unlock hidden talents and potential, how it is an opportunity to develop new relationships and can galvanise teams and groups, create an energy and momentum for innovation, new ideas and new beginnings.
3. Deliver high support with high challenge - only today I read an article on the down falls of being an over empathetic leader and a work shop I’m hosting on developing an accountability culture next month is one of the highest subscribed to I’ve had. Delivering the right blend of empathy, support and accountability requires great balancing skills.
4. Agile leadership – Leading the right people in the right roles to do the job that’s required now. Constant working with dynamic resourcing solutions is essential to deliver but also to ensure people thrive. In the past perhaps we have aimed our leadership a little too much at keeping the band together at all costs, predominately relying on fixed resourcing as the preferred model.
5. Focus on energy and vitality - for ourselves and our teams. For physical wellbeing I love the SHED method by Sarah Milne- Rowe – focusing on a good balance of Sleep Hydration Exercise Diet. It’s simple and effective. Shifting how we view resilience is a great place to start on the mental wellbeing side of things. Reframing what resilience is and is not. It’s not about the longest hours and wading through an unreasonable workload till the small hours it’s about asking for help, reallocating resources, reprioritising work and sometimes saying “no” or “not yet”. For some leaders it’s a big shift. Add to this Creating psychological safety has always been essential but where hybrid working and or different work styles are present then this becomes even more essential and includes levelling up access to resources and relationships.
6. Create communities and citizens - With growth of different ways of working colleague community can be lost and colleagues can show up as consumers for themselves as they don’t have the connection with colleagues and may think “me” above “we”. We need as leaders to use raft of techniques and resources to create community where colleagues become ‘citizens’ contributing for the benefit of all the community.
7. Learn a living not just earn a living – last but not least Leaders need to be continually learning to stay relevant and current and encourage, enable and empower those they lead to do the same. Releasing our own and others curiosity is essential given the pace of change. There is an increasing desire to recruit not just on what people know now but their ability to learn. Favourite assessment questions of mine are what is the last thing that made you curious? how did you find out more and what did you find out?
I’m not dismissing tried and tested models that many of us have used to support our own leadership, facilitation and coaching for a long time. I am advocating we pay close attention to the world in which these exist and consider this order for us to be effective and remain relevant and current.
No one fell out of love with films, yet Blockbuster went bust because it didn’t respond to a changing world. The same principle applies to leadership. It must take on new forms, evolve and transform to keep pace with new demands so we can lead for now and next.
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