Tag: leadership

Purpose & Practice grow together

Posted on by simongterry in Uncategorized

Purpose beats entropy. Adaptive leadership practice renews.

Most learning experiences fade. Some fade very quickly. In general only a small proportion of any experience is retained. Even less makes it into sustained practice.

Almost seven years ago, I had my first experience of a learning program that introduced me to adaptive leadership. That amazing experience, the Accelerate Program at NAB, involved work inside and outside the organisation on complex issues.  These issues required the practice of the skills of a different type of leadership than traditional transactional and expertise based command and control leadership. That leadership experience has been one that has grown every day since.

What makes the power of adaptive leadership lessons grow in practice?

Purpose & practice.

Entropy is the normal process of decay in systems.  Negentropy, or syntropy, is its opposite where things grow in strength over time. My experience is that purpose is a great way to beat entropy.  The Wikipedia for negentropy notes that even scientists see power in purpose:

Indeed, negentropy has been used by biologists as the basis for purpose or direction in life, namely cooperative or moral instincts.

My first experience of adaptive leadership in the Accelerate Program forced a great deal of personal reflection on purpose. That clarity drove new action in a range of different domains. Purpose is an incredible force for energy and drives the desire to see these new skills in practice. Naturally I began tentatively and with a great deal of discomfort.

In all the years since, I have learned that continued Adaptive leadership practice refines the clarity of personal purpose. I have become more aware of my effect on others and on the importance of collaborative solutions that engage many people in the system. Those interactions reinforce the growing energy. The purpose sustains you through the challenges of practice. A continuous iteration of purpose and practice, grows the effectiveness of your leadership.

The purpose is in the work. Adaptive leadership work especially.

The Magic of Authority

Posted on by simongterry in Uncategorized

Authority comes when we are ready to lead and ready to deliver for others

Recently I was talking with a colleague in a mentoring conversation.  This individual was describing her surprise that she was being asked to lead a piece of collaborative work that she had initiated.  A group that she had brought together were deferring to her authority.  Because she had convened the group, chosen the individuals and had the compelling vision for the work, the group were ready to follow.  It was an adjustment for someone who saw themselves as simply as the coordinator to realise that they had earned the authority to lead others more senior.

At the heart of this moment, is a key insight.  The magic of authority is this – you have the authority because others judge you ready.  Others chose to follow because they trust in your vision, insight, capabilities, experience or approach.  Their trust and their followership means that you are ready to lead, whether you know that yet or not.

You can be thrust into a rank you are unfit to hold or where you are unsuitable to deliver on the expectations of the position.  We have all experienced the terror of those first moments of a new and challenging role. Rank is a gift and some times it is bestowed in error.

Authority doesn’t work that way.  Unlike rank, it doesn’t come as a gift from others.  Authority is earned.  If you have authority, you are ready to exercise it.

So next time you are wondering how you ended up in charge, remember that you earned it.  Go show your new followers that their instincts are right.  

That leadership is the least that they expect from you. 

Authority is earned

Posted on by simongterry in Uncategorized

The best obstructionist question is ‘who gave you the authority to…?’ My answer is always the same ‘Nobody’

Authority is not given. Authority is earned. Rank & title might be given to you but authority comes from action.

Authority is purpose, capability, experience and leadership rolled into one. You don’t get that without work (& hard work at that). People allow you authority when they have confidence in your leadership to deliver. Authority comes when others chose to follow.

My experience is that when everyone is standing around the empty white space where a problem resides, the person who first steps in to solve it wins authority. Almost always people are relieved that someone did something. That initial authority will grow if you keep delivering on the work to solve the problem.

Don’t wait to be given a parchment & seal with formal authority to act as a leader should. Waiting around is the surest way to lose what authority you have earned.

You have the authority because you want or need to act. It’s up to you to convince others to let you continue. That’s what leaders do.

So do it.

Decision review for leaders

Posted on by simongterry in Uncategorized

Leaders decisions are reviewed in real time. Are you up for scrutiny?

Umpiring decisions are now subject to detailed review in many sports, often controversially. What we have learned in this process is that human decisions made in an instant are often unreliable. Importantly, review itself does not always lead to greater certainty or a better outcome.

Leaders are highly visible and subject to the same exacting review. Teams scrutinize their actions and comments. There is a permanent decision review system in place on the actions of leaders. Nothing is irrelevant to a team trying to understand the leader’s agenda and whether the leader is true to his or her word.

How can a leader manage this level of scrutiny?

Recognize your actions and decisions are all public & subject to review: everything is subject to review. Even private actions will be discussed if someone is aware of them. Be ready to explain yourself to the watching review system.

Share your thinking where the basis for your actions is uncertain: you are better to provide an explanation than to have the review system in your team construct one. If you were uncertain, but a confident decision was required say so. Help the team understand the difference between certainty and confidence.

If it is an anomaly or an error, wear it: pretense just leads people to question your competence.

Signal: people are watching so remember you can send signals with your actions and decisions, even the smallest ones.

Most of all be clear & repeat yourself: your team rarely has a video replay of your actions. They will compare their notes instead. Their perceptions might be unreliable. Repeat your actions to improve clarity.

Every decision of a leader is up for review. Expect and manage it.

The Purpose is in the Work

Posted on by simongterry in Uncategorized

Leadership is work with others to fulfil a purpose. From where does purpose come?

The work.

Many people want to find their personal purpose to guide their leadership work. For some, purpose is quickly evident with a little reflection. Often reflection will only take you so far. For others drawing out any strong sense of purpose is more of a challenge.

Leadership is work, not a status. Purpose is a strong personal impetus to action, not an abstract & perfect idea. You don’t need purpose perfect to act. Just as leadership gets better with experience in the mess of the work, so does purpose evolving to a clearer expression through interaction with others.

The best guide is that purpose is what compels you to act, to lead and to have an impact on others. So ask these questions:

– What do I enjoy doing most in my work? What drives that?

– What work do I keep coming back to do? What drives that?

– What kind of impact do I have? What kind of impact do I want to have? What makes me choose these things?

– What do others call on me to do? What is it about me that makes them choose me?

– What do I want to do next?

There is little value in endless reflection to perfect a purpose. Purpose is refined in practice. Purpose in leadership necessarily involves others. Demonstrate leadership in work, learn from interactions with others and see where your purpose is strongest.

Do. Focus on the work. Purpose is there. Purpose comes.

Leaders need to pitch

Posted on by simongterry in Uncategorized

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion it has taken place – George Bernard Shaw

Recently I was standing in a long coffee queue. Standing In front was what someone who sounded like they were interviewing for a job. All the way through our long wait to reach the front, this individual told the story of their career & achievements in rambling self-centered & quite dull stories that the entire queue could hear. The expression on the face of the listener told me that he was equally uninterested. I was quite surprised that someone who clearly had a lot of experience could do such a poor job of pitching himself.

At the front of the queue, the individual finally acknowledge it was a long story but added ‘I need to tell you all this so you understand my leadership approach’.

He didn’t need to tell us ‘all this’. His story summarised to a few adjectives and two sharp sentences. At that moment, I realized I had the situation backwards. The only reason his audience was listening was the speaker was the hiring manager (Probably also explains why he thought everyone else should hear too).

I believe leaders need to be able to communicate their point of view and leadership approach. However for it to have value it needs to be as concise and as impactful as a pitch. The power of putting forward your point of view is to allow others to engage with it. Your pitch must be engaging. Leaders need to efficiently sell themselves. You cannot abuse people’s respect for your position by wasting time or attention. That waste will only be counterproductive on the relationship and your authority as a leader.

If you want to refine your pitch, here’s some questions to get you started:
-What is your purpose? Why do you lead?
-What 3 adjectives would others use to best describe who you are?
-How do you want your team to feel?

Be concise. Be impactful. Focus on what others need to know.

In short, sell yourself like you are trying to get hired, because every day a leader need to re-earn their authority.

Corporate power is changing fast

Posted on by simongterry in Change, Leadership

Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets – Dr Paul Batalden

Moises Naim has written a book, The End of Power , in which he highlights that three trends are weakening traditional political power relationships in a range of political domains from sovereign states to other organisations:
– more: more people, information, resources, activity, etc
– mobility: unprecedented mobility
– mentality: new mindsets and expectations driven from new values and expectations

These three factors are also likely to drive dramatic power relationship changes inside corporations in coming years. Corporate politics is just human politics writ small. More than ever employees, customers, suppliers and communities are leveraging these three trends to challenge hierarchical models of power that trace back to the founding of modern corporate structures.

Social media internally and externally connects more and more people and supplies an escalating volume of information. The edicts of senior managers no longer stand alone. Consumers, partners and employees may well be better connected and have more information on what’s going on than the executive decision maker.

The Internet has accelerated the ability of customers and employees to be more mobile and to engage in new relationships with a corporation. Alternatives are now much more easily found and individuals have greater power to make their own choices or even solutions to needs. Voice is an increasing option where once the dissatisfied had only exit to choose.

These trends will only accelerate the already shifting values and expectations in employee careers and consumer purchase decisions. The employee and consumer expectations of a two-way & values-based relationship is likely to increase. Organisations and leaders will find themselves more accountable for their own rhetoric.

Leaders need to recognize these changes and begin to adapt to new models of leadership. Many leaders bemoan the limits of their status and hierarchical power today. The traditional ability to order technical change is simply less effective in complex adaptive situations. The trends that Moises Naim identifies are only likely to increase the number challenges corporate leaders face that exhibit these characteristics. We all need to start learning new ways now of adjusting to new leadership styles that are more two-way, more adaptive and based more in the strength of authority, not role. The rewards of these new models will come in purpose, engagement and the ability of enabled employees, consumers and partners to innovate.

The leaders who adapt first to these changes will hold distinct advantages over those who cling to traditional models of leadership. Which would you rather have a begrudging captive or a loyal follower?