Over at our group on LinkedIn, bad behaviour is all the rage. So to help create some balance in our world, here’s a look at what makes great leadership behaviour. Leadership is not a sacred path, it is a route open to all, we just need to choose it. Enjoy the read, and then please…take some action.
As a leader, the most important thing of all is make yourself visible and act completely consistently at all times with your declared values (you don’t need to look much beyond Gordon Brown’s “bigoted woman” howler to see the importance of this). When people have to change, they become anxious and look for any discrepancy between the leaders’ words and deeds, which they magnify and use as reason for inaction. For example when the leader talks about the importance of the team, but rewards individual performance, people will be demoralised and will opt for individual performance, because they assume that is what the leader really wants. It is not that money bribes, but it talks. Very loudly. You might like to watch Dan Pink speaking on the Science of Motivation, for more on this.
Educate people as early as you can about the changing situation and ask people what their ideas are. Often managers mistakenly pretend there is not a problem because they do not wish to alarm people. This is patronising and denies the organisation the value of more people’s awareness, experience and creativity. Additionally, it is a mistake to believe that people resist change. What they resist most is having change imposed upon them. So managers who plan secretly then announce their solutions should not be surprised when they meet resistance instead of the commitment they had expected and hoped for. They are committing leadership malpractice.
Building on the previous points, people very much want to feel safe and in control. Dealing with imposed change can threaten these feelings, so good leaders help people to regain control and actively engage them in co-creating their new future.
Having identified your top priorities for positive change, bear in mind that Tesco learned and showed that you cannot run more than three strategic projects at the same time. Many businesses try to do too much, which distracts and confuses their people while dispersing resources too broadly. Sustained focus is vital. Do what you need to do until you have done it. Then stop and get on with the next thing.
