What I know about leadership
My official leadership journey started in 2007 with the Awatoto Works Lab at Ravensdown. I think my real leadership journey started in my youth with programs like Girl Guides and the Duke of Edinburgh.
How the journey started or the twists and turns it took is not important, but what I’ve learnt about leadership is.
I’ve experienced different types of leadership. Leading from places of expertise and leading with minimal expertise, leading in the same location as my team and leading remotely, leading in the same time zone and leading on shift work - these experiences have shaped what I know about leadership.
I have also had the privilege of some amazing leadership training, both here in New Zealand through the University of Otago and abroad with a PLD from Harvard Business School. An important component of any training is what you put into practice and sustain after the course is finished. I love to write myself a letter, to the future me if you will - “In 12 months I will have achieved, or I will be …..” I then set a calendar reminder to pull out the letter and read it. I am always surprised by what I have achieved and what has changed from when I wrote the letter. This is also a great way to spot the reoccurring “blind spots”.
These lived experiences have combined to form what I know about leadership.
Each of these points could be a blog in itself and maybe that will happen in the future. For now, here is a high-level summary of what I know about leadership.
Leadership starts with you
As leaders, we need to be looking at ourselves first. Both from the perspective of looking after yourself and also from the perspective of holding yourself accountable before holding others to account.
I like to take a leaf from the airline industry playbook and fit my own safety mask first. Make it a priority to look after your physical and emotional well-being and have a plan for your personal development. There are two things I find useful for this. The first is a wheel of life - I like to do this regularly, at least every 12 months and more frequently when going through change. The second thing is having a personal development plan for myself - again not just career-focused but a holistic focus on areas I want to develop.
Do you have a personal development plan for yourself?
The second part of this is to hold yourself to account before pointing the finger at others. As part of my end-of-week review, I will ask myself the following questions:
What went well?
How did I contribute to this?
What was challenging?
And again you guess it “How did I contribute to this?”
These questions provide an opportunity to learn from yourself both when things go well and when they don’t.
Ask better questions
In the old-school concepts of leadership, leaders expect to have all the answers. My biggest takeaway from Harvard was how to ask better questions. One of our lecturers, Professor Tushmann, used to say “You aren’t here to give me the right answer, you are here to learn how to ask the right question”. You may think it’s easy to ask great questions but we can easily fall into the trap of thinking we know things that we don’t. It’s that assumption space that catches many leaders out.
My two-step process for asking better questions is very simple - ask a great question and then shut up.
For a question to be great, it needs to be open and curious, it can leave room for the respondent to pick the direction.
“What else do I need to know about this?”
“What do you think is really going on here?
“Is there any information we are missing?
Initially, I thought Dr Max Goodwin’s question from the drama series New Amsterdam was a great one “How can I help?” but on reflection “What do you need?” is a better question.
Can you see the difference?
The second part is to shut up. Shut up your voice and your mind, and focus your attention on listening with your whole body (yes this is a thing) what do you notice about the response?
As a leader you need to stop being the expert in a particular area and become the expert in your people, asking better questions allows you to achieve this.
Find the story hidden in the data
Once you have the information - what do you do with it?
Data is fascinating stuff - I absolutely love data. I wear an Oura ring and from time to time a CGM. I love to see the patterns and themes that emerge from the data I collect. I also view emotion as a data set, another point to be collected and weaved into the story. Because, to me, that is ultimately what data is. A way to interpret the world around you and how you interact with it.
What story is your data telling you?
I ask myself questions like: Where is the evidence to support this story? Are there any gaps? What is this telling me?
Working out what the data means is more of an art than a science and I find storytelling a useful framework to hang the data on.
When you can tell a cohesive story with your data it creates a shared language and experience that can align and unite your team.
Get comfortable being uncomfortable
Leadership can be hard.
The responsibility and accountability that comes with leadership can be uncomfortable.
You will have to have difficult conversations, you will have to challenge yourself and others.
Leadership is designed to get you out of your comfort zone and into the growth zone.
You can then support others to move out of their comfort zone too.
When you create a safe space for your team to grow and challenge themselves you will truly see the magic happen. Creating synergy, where the combined outcome of your team far exceeds what each individual can achieve, is an amazing thing to be a part of.
But it all starts with getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Leadership is caring for your people
I love this concept of leadership, coined by Simon Sinek and this is the style of leadership I model.
To me, this concept generates two questions.
Who are your people?
What does “caring” for them look like?
This will differ for each individual as there is no “stock standard” way to lead.
It will depend on you, your team, their competence, confidence and the context you operate in.
This is where the concept of situational leadership comes in, reading the room and delivering the leadership required.
Do they need a champion or a challenge, a cheerleader or a coach? The skill of leadership is being able to recognise what each of your people needs and then deliver it, while still being consistent with who you are as a person.
Manage things and lead people
This is a super easy concept but one that many leaders get wrong. Managing things is creating systems and processes to ensure things get done. People require something completely different - provide clear guidance on what you expect from them - then get out of their way and let them get it done. Allow your people to be the experts in their area and you can become the expert on getting them to work together cohesively.
You can apply this concept by simply asking yourself - is this a thing or is this a person? And then act accordingly.
I’ve kept this pretty high level and skimmed over some big topics. If you would like me to get more in-depth in a follow-up blog, let me know and I’ll be happy to oblige.
If this blog generated some questions for you, use the link below to book a 20-minute phone call and I’ll answer them.