Changing Leadership Mindset to drive Organisational Performance

Transcription

1 Changing Leadership Mindset to drive Organisational Performance Gerrit Walters - Eskom Dr Anton Verwey Engage Leadership Background In reflecting on what the themes and topics of the series of articles should be, we were of the view that an important issue to engage on is not on what we (and our clients and partners) do, or even how, but to really rethink the WHY. Although we will therefore focus on the core areas of our own work as depicted in the diagram below, we will throughout explore different ways of thinking about issues such as strategy, leadership, organisational capacity, stakeholder satisfaction and performance. Figure 1: Article structure In this article, the second in our series for 2014, we explore the need to focus on leadership mindset to drive organisational change and performance. The Idea in Brief In this article the authors argue that the very traditional approaches to leadership talent identification and development processes will not build the leadership capacity we need to be successful in the future. This requires a different mindset of leaders as individuals, when stepping into their roles, and when being part of the broader leadership community. Leadership versus Leader Manfred Kets de Vries (The Eight Archetypes of Leadership, December 2013) writes: Although the ghost of the Great Man still haunts leadership studies, most of us have recognized by now that successful organizations are the product of distributive, collective, and complementary leadership. The first step in putting together such a team is to identify each member of the team s personality makeup and leadership style, so that strengths and competences can be matched to particular roles and challenges. Getting this match wrong can bring misery to all concerned and cause considerable damage. In our own language, we are beginning to talk about leadership community of brand, suggesting to our client systems that although leadership talent identification and development processes at a practical level focuses on individuals, we have to extend the 1

2 thinking and our practices to the leadership teams or groups as this creates a particular context where individual leaders can either sink or swim. This means that all of our thinking and practices are informed by a simple outside-in: inside-out approach. Outside-In refers to the need to have deliberate and mindful insight into the broader context within which your organisational leadership has to be effective. How do we understand our world, our industry, our own organisation, and how does this inform our expectation on what leadership effectiveness means for us at an individual and collective level? Given this context, Inside-Out refers to leadership capacity building processes that focus on the individual, then the immediate leadership team, then the broader internal leadership community, and finally the external landscape. In all of this, the key point of departure is that we need to reframe our own thinking, meaning we have to adjust our own mindsets so that at an individual and collective level we are able to explore and create approaches and practices that are attuned to the world we live in (and in the process of creating!). that created the situation we are in. Similarly, it is flawed thinking that organisations can change without personal change within people or that change within people will automatically result in a changed organisation. Ulrich and Smallwood (2013) write: leadership sustainability is a lasting and durable commitment to personal change and creating a culture of leadership improvement that affects all leaders in a company. However, the overwhelming evidence is that leaders struggle to sustain personal changes made, and more often than not slip back into less effective behaviour. Maybe this requires a pause on the Why, and perhaps time to THINK differently so that we can do differently. As shown in the diagram below, the statement by Ulrich and Smallwood advocates a systemic interplay between personal change (leader) and the collective space of leader in the leadership role and leadership culture. It is this interplay of collective leadership practices that shapes collective actions to enhance the organisation s reputation as a responsible and high performing member of its community. Leadership Mindset Remember, it is the secret force hidden deep within us that manipulates our strings; there lies the voice of persuasion, there the very life, we might say, is the man (sic) himself. (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations) It is naïve to think that we can achieve our aspirations with the same mindset Figure 2: Collective leadership practices 2

3 The literature contains various development models and approaches that can be employed by leaders with a view to address this requirement for personal change and specifically the manner in which they look at, and react to, the external world (reflection-inaction, reframing, imagination, insideout approach, self-leadership, minimising attainment deficit). This new way of seeing and doing requires an Inside-Out approach to personal growth, meaning that change is initiated at the intra-personal level. To address the barriers to effectiveness, change and excellence, discovery must come from within the individual leader. A leader s belief systems and imbedded assumptions is the single most important blockage to new ways of thinking and doing. This self-model is based on a foundation of self-awareness, selfregulation and self-motivation resulting in situational intra-personal competence. As self-awareness is viewed as the cornerstone of all insight, leaders are required to develop a reflective mindset to encourage selfawareness and introspection as the key to the process of behavioural change Scharmer and Kaufer (2013) and many others however warn that conventional, transformational methods cannot affect the deep mindset and behavioural changes required to transition into the new leadership effectiveness expectation. The question still remains: what is driving my leadership behaviour? Sustained, desired change in leader behaviour represents a metamorphosis in mindset, actions and habits associated with leadership effectiveness. It however requires intentional and sustained effort from the leader. Work on this deeper level is a matter of addressing the hidden aspects of the iceberg: one s basic beliefs, assumptions, impulses, emotional needs and intrapersonal skills (Boyatziz, 2008) The collective capacity of organisational members, at all levels in the organisation, to engage effectively in leadership roles and processes (in order to produce direction, alignment and commitment), resides in the social capital domain (inter-personal) and is an emergent property of the social system. It is not added on but rather emerges in the process of creating shared meaning and shared understanding of dynamic complexity. This collective leadership rests on the foundation of interpersonal competence underpinned by social awareness (empathy, service orientation, political awareness), social skills (building bonds, team orientation, change catalyst, conflict management) and those shared values that naturally mobilise people (Kets de Vries and Korotov, 2010). To thrive in an increasingly complex, interdependent, and changing world will require us to challenge many deepseated individual and collective mindsets, as it can be argued that the unconscious collective actions by the leadership community (defensive avoidance, hyper-vigilance, defensive blindness, rationalizations, denial, selective perceptions, and wishful thinking) might work against the sustainability of these collective actions (Argyris, 2010). 3

4 Changing Leadership Mindset To operationalise a changed (and changing) leadership mindset, an awareness and integration of specific elements are necessary. Although it will never be linear and always integrated, it needs to start with strategy being deliberate in addressing individual and collective mindset change as a priority in the leadership strategy. Be upfront about the Inside-Out philosophy, meaning that all leadership development initiatives will focus on: Me (leader) and what is driving my behaviour, Key Aspects Considerations Me stepping into the space of my team (me in my leadership role), and Me and other leaders and how I / WE step into the collective organisational space (leadership culture). It goes without saying that leadership strategy is aligned to organisational strategy and that the execution of leadership strategy will happen within a holistic, integrated logic. The following table contains some of the key aspects of such a leadership mindset journey we have learnt through practical application. T Leadership Brand Be deliberate in the preparation of the leadership development team Assessment of Individual Capability and Competence Architecting the development solutions Choosing your learning development partners wisely Position the leadership brand as the invisible link between leader, team and organisational behaviour. What is our own mindset and what behaviour is that driving; have the required rigorous conversations and ensure that nothing is left to chance; reflect as much as required, before during and after events. The use of scientific data to shape individual development plans and to shape collective development initiatives remains important. Competence gaps serve as drivers for development solutions while Capability profiles support leadership talent management processes. Adopt a clear and consistent Inside-Out philosophy, architecture and practice across different development solutions across the leadership pipeline. Start all development journeys with ME and what is driving my leadership behaviour (think differently so that I can do differently). Be clear on the experiential nature of the learning methodology it is action, experiences and conversation that will break the stuckness of current mindsets. Do not compromise on meeting of hearts and minds when selecting external partners. Find world-class specialists that deeply share the Inside-Out philosophy. Leave nothing to chance; collaborate extensively on the desired outcomes. 4

5 Development facilitation Architect and implement integrative development solutions with the objective to bring the collective together and to facilitate application of individual learning Continuous, deliberate and mindful learning To a significant degree, it is the skill of the facilitator to identify and address unconscious collusion / defensive behaviour and bring the learning back to ME. Replication and continuously repeating the foundational supporting practices such as journaling, self-reflection and dialogue, across the development pipeline is also of significant importance. A practical example is an Intra-team solution that brings the leader and his/her team together, to work on real, day to day challenges and to merge parallel personal growth journeys. Similarly, architect Inter-Team solutions to facilitate conversations to remove barriers that affect interdependence across the value-chain. Both solutions further reinforce the leadership brand as a conduit. Position Reflective Practice as an enabler in the personal growth journey in building the reflective mindset and as an enabler in the collective team and culture space. Conclusion In essence, we are suggesting that: The competitive landscape for business has change dramatically, and will continue to do so; Which requires of us to adopt different strategies with different behaviours; Which requires a different mindset of leaders as individuals, when stepping into their roles, and when being part of the broader leadership community; All of which means we have to rethink our leadership capacity building processes and practices. Many forces in the unconscious but if we are wise and deliberate. The absolute bottom-line is that the very traditional approaches to leadership talent identification and development processes will not build the leadership capacity we need to be successful in the future. Clearly, this also places particular demands on the leadership development functions in organisations. Hopefully, this article will also provide some new perspectives to these professionals. Final remarks In the next few articles in this series, we will focus on the organisational capacity to be created by leadership to give effect to strategy. Specifically, articles will be provided on aspects such as Culture, People, Process and Technology, all of which combine to create the capacity organisations have to execute strategies, plans and actions. 5

6 As always, we also invite all our readers to engage in conversation with us about this article. Questions, comments, challenges all will be welcomed as input into also shaping and enriching our own thinking. References Argyris, C. (2010). Organizational traps. Leadership, culture, organizational design. New York: Oxford University Press. Boyatziz, R, E. (2008) Leadership development from a complexity perspective. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 60(4), Kets de Vries, M. & Korotov, K. (2010). Developing leaders and leadership development. Working paper: Insead. Scharmer, O. & Kaufer, K. (2013). Leading from the emerging future. From ego-system to Eco-system economics. San Francisco: Berret-Koehler Publishers. Senge, P.M. (2003). Taking personal change seriously: The impact of Organizational Learning on management practice. Academy of Management Executive. Vol. 17, No.2. Ulrich, D. & Smallwood, N. (2013). Leadership sustainability. Seven disciplines to achieve the changes great leaders know they must make. New York: McGraw-Hill. 6