We can all think of examples of Messianic Leaders – that is, leaders who think they are infallible and all knowing. But we also know that they are fallible, the trouble is, they usually don’t know that. Instead, they push on with their huge self-belief, and drive their agenda onto their teams. Finally, there is some solid research that challenges this. The research is reported in the May 3 2021 online edition of Insight from the Kellogg school of business at Northwestern University (read it here).
A key finding of the research is that “a leader’s high status among their peers doesn’t guarantee a positive outcome for the projects they lead. Indeed, it can often be a liability. It seems that high status leaders tend to either have huge success or massive failure. The leader with moderate status tends to have the highest average level or project performance.
This fascinates me and the two reasons for this as reported are very interesting. The first is that the high-status leader is typically overburdened and has many people all demanding some of their time. Simply put, they are just too busy to give the project the quality time it deserves.
The second reason is that there is less scrutiny of them. That is, the people around them may not offer honest feedback.” Instead, their egos grow and those around them stop telling them the truth and are getting feedback they are always right because those around them are not prepared to offer alternative perspectives.
In contrast, the moderate status leader has not yet attained the position where they are surrounded by yes men and have just enough runs on the board to be trusted to be given more responsibility.
The article concludes with a quote from the research paper that is a challenge for leaders, “People only give us the feedback they perceive we’re comfortable taking, and if we’re not open to being told ‘no’, when we’re in a high-status position, people probable won’t tell us ‘No’ enough.” As a leader, are your people prepared to give you the honest feedback you need?
Leadership and management are largely not mutually exclusive. To do one usually involves elements of the other to varying degrees. I have too often seen people moved into what has been called a “leadership role”, when in reality it is primarily a management role with some small degree of leadership attached. Consequently, reality differs from expectations (and promises) and they find themselves ill-prepared for the ‘nuts and bolts’ of their new role.
The latest edition of The First-Time Manager (7th edition by Loren Belker, Jim McCormick and Gary Topchik, HarperCollins Leadership), which became available earlier in 2021 is the ideal resource for people who have been thrust into roles that involves managing other people, or indeed themselves. It is an update on a classic that was first published in 1981 and maintains its relevance and importance.
The book is divided into six parts, which looks at various elements of being a manager, including expectations, working with people, developing yourself, and coping with stress. The updates have kept pace with trends in management and also incorporate how social media is impacting on a managers work. While it does have a US-centric flavour in some of the HR discussion, this does not detract form the principles and ideas conveyed.
I highly recommend this book to people who are wanting to know the ‘nitty-gritty’ of management, whether as preparation for or to further enhance their work as a manager.
One of the perks (or catches!) of being trustworthy, particularly in leadership and management, is often being the go-to person for problem solving. Anyone who is experienced in their role or is a best friend can find themselves in the position of advisor. So, it’s no surprise our reflex when placed in this position is to respond immediately with our wisest and clearly, very helpful, advice. You know, responses that usually begin with:
As natural and well-intended as it may be, our advice reflex is not always the most effective way to help. This is especially true when you’re trying to coach someone to higher levels of achievement, performance and critical thinking.
I’ve been reflecting on an episode of Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead podcast, which discussed how we can focus on better coaching rather than falling into the “advice trap.” Perhaps we aren’t as good at giving advice as we think. The podcast notes our advice often doesn’t address the right problem and might even do a disservice when our ego prevents us from helping someone solve a problem themselves. The point is to stop playing the fixer and empower the other to take ownership.
Essentially, the difference between coaching and advising is as simple as asking versus telling. The podcast walks through seven questions you can use to effectively coach someone through an issue. The questions are:
While there are more formalised coaching models, what I like about this one is the bottom line: stay curious. Ask one more question than you would have before. I find that freeing because it takes the pressure away from feeling like we need to have all the answers. In fact, all we need are the questions.
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It is no secret that I do not like networking, in fact I would rather watch my beloved football team lose than have to attend a networking event. And yet the benefits of professional networking are backed by research, and like me, a lot of people shy away from it.
Recent research published by Jiyin Cao and Ned Smith (read it here) have found that your view of your status directly affects both the size of your social network and your participation in networking – higher status individuals have larger social networks and are more likely to reach out and network. In particular, when “…people attributed their high status to their own talent and hard work, they were particularly eager to network: they were confident they had value to offer and that others would be receptive to their outreach.:
The article notes the various experiments the researchers undertook to explore this idea, and that each study confirmed a different aspect of the findings – “If you know you have value to bring to the relationship, you will feel more comfortable about doing this type of work.” So individuals that feel “they have something to offer will network more than other people who suspect they have less value to offer and others will likely be unreceptive.” These higher status people “don’t feel like they’re taking advantage of their networking partner, which makes them come across as more authentic.”
The authors push beyond this finding to offer some advice that people should be aware of the potential value they can bring to a relationship which should give you some comfort to embark on the process.
The article ends with a strong word of caution, which is that the “implications of their findings extend beyond the workplace, into social hierarchies and inequalities writ large.” That is, this phenomenon can “cause the perpetuation of hierarchies and reinforce inequality by making the upper class feel more entitled to their privilege and the lower class feel more doubtful about their self-value.” Very sobering, and a challenge for every leader to endeavour to remove the class hierarchy in the workplace and create an environment where all members can feel value. In the meantime, you’ll find me watching football.
“People may not remember what you say, but they will remember how you made them feel” is a saying you may be familiar with. If it was true in the past, it is even more true now. A recent online article in Forbes (read it here) by Dr Tracy Brower looks at the latest research and concludes that “empathy contributes to positive relationships and organizational cultures and it also drives results.”.
With the increase in stress factors for workers, including mental health, personal pressures and uncertainty in work, empathy is more important now than ever before. Brower notes that among the various leadership skills, empathy is the one that leaders most need to get right. Using current research, Brower notes that empathy contributes to positive outcomes in the following areas:
What can leaders do to lead with empathy? Brower notes two main areas to focus on:
Empathy is part of who we are as humans, and leaders need to exercise it more, not just because of these positive benefits, but because it is the right thing to do.
Kristen Hansen’s goal in her book Traction: The Neuroscience of Leadership and Performance (Hansen, 2017) is to “transform managers into agile leaders of change and performance through neuroscience principles.” This book takes the reader on a walk through the NeuroTREAD framework, using neuroscience to level up your leadership and performance through the areas of Think, Regulate, Engage, Adapt and Develop.
The essence of the book is that an understanding of the science behind our brains allows us to effectively lead ourselves, and then others. Through practicing these principles we transform our personal awareness, emotion regulation, resilience, creativity, agility, ability to coach, and our own performance. Hansen holds a Masters in Neuroscience of Leadership and uses scientific and anecdotal research to present a very convincing argument.
The book is well-organised into clear sections for Think, Regulate, Engage, Adapt and Develop (NeuroTREAD), with each one building upon knowledge from the earlier sections. It is an engaging read, that makes an understanding of neuroscience accessible to anyone. An excellent mix of science, humour, and practical suggestions.
It is well suited for leaders, and anyone else who has a desire to increase their personal and professional capabilities.
An absolutely worthwhile read that is highly recommended. You will walk away with an abundance of practical guidance.
Avondale Business School has at present a diverse range of student research topics at the Doctorate of Philosophy post graduate study programs. Below are details of three students currently undertaking research supervised by ABS staff Associate Professor Lisa Barnes, Dr Warrick Long and Dr Peter Williams. Given the projects diversity, we have also collaborated with colleagues outside of the school such as Associate Professor Peter Kilgour from Education, and even University President Kevin Petrie. This gives the students a range of ideas and opinions to keep their research on track. Here is a small summary of these current research projects.
Currently at the data collection phase is a project entitled “An investigation into spiritual wellbeing development and spiritual practices, in the leadership of Australian Christian schools”. This project is a passion of student Cass Pendlebury, currently Executive Officer NSW/ACT for Christian Schooling Australia and former human resources management consultant. The role of Principal in Christian schools as opposed to non-faith-based independent schools, has added expectations of spiritual leadership along with the operational and educational oversight of the school. The catalyst for this study was a perceived increase in ‘burnout’ in the leadership of Australian Christian schools and the desire to investigate possible Spiritual Wellbeing and interventions that may help sustain principals.
Also in the data collection phase is a project by student Median Melhim entitled “Corporate Governance Impact on Firm Value via Risk Disclosure in an Emerging Capital Market”. This study focuses on Jordan as an emerging equity market in the Middle East, the dataset includes 84 Jordanian companies, which includes services and industrial listed companies currently traded on the Amman stock exchange (ASE). Data will be collected from the annual reports of the companies for five years covering the time period from 2015 to 2019. The results of this research could provide implications for regulatory bodies to reinforce corporate governance elements that promote better corporate risk disclosure in Jordan.
Just receiving ethics clearance from the Avondale Human Research Ethics Committee is a project by student Paul Campey entitled “Seeking God’s will: The role of Christian Spiritual Discernment in Christian School Boards” In undertaking the role of governing an organisation, boards are required to deal with an ever increasing compliance load and make a multitude of decisions and choices utilising their skills, knowledge and experience. As the board of a Christian organisation, board members are also called on to make such decisions framed by seeking to follow God’s will for the organisation they have governance over. The intention of this mixed method research is to examine key practices that Christian School boards use in relation to Christian Spiritual Discernment in decision making. Phase one will be a large-scale survey of Board Chairs, Board Members and Principals of Christian Schools in Australia and New Zealand. Phase two will be a series of subsequent qualitative interviews of a number of selected survey respondents to gain further insights on Christian Spiritual Discernment and what role it plays in decision making in Christian School boards.
Culture can be your competitive advantage. This is a key finding from the just released PwC Global Cultural Survey 2021 (find it here) that was conducted in March of this year across 42 countries and over 3,000 participants.
For 66% of respondents, culture is now more important to performance than the organisation’s strategy or operating model. Culture is the factor which binds these together with the organisations purpose. Overwhelming the conclusion is that culture is connected to business success, as you can see from the extracted exhibit below:
A distinctive culture also assists with:
A key factor in having a distinctive culture that contributes to business success is leadership that walks the talk. Interestingly, the survey notes that “business leaders believe they are the walking embodiment of the organisation
A culture, values and purpose, but their employees disagree”, and “many workers feel they are not fully seen or heard and that workplaces aren’t as inclusive as they think.” As a consequence, “employees are losing faith in the power of culture, even though the senior executive team believe culture is more important than strategy or operating models.”
The key to addressing this is to “identify and prioritise strategic goals, then understand which traits and behaviours support these goals, and then activate and begin to evolve their culture by using key organisational levers or enabler”. These nine enablers are identified and described in the report.
The report concludes that “when aligned with strategy, purpose and the operating model, culture can be a powerful force that supports retention and acts as an insurance policy against future crisis.” And who wouldn’t want that?
“I pursue and revere open windows of time largely because of how elusive I find them. I need them every day. And so do you.” Author Juliet Funt clearly outlines her intentions in the just published book ‘A minute to think: Reclaim creativity, conquer busyness, and do your best work’ (2021, Harper Business). Funt is a consultant to many of the world’s largest companies, and in this book addresses the monster is most executives’ lives – no time to think.
The premise is for us to find white space in our lives – that is, ‘freed time in the day to think (and breathe, and ponder, and plan, and create).’ What is particularly good with this book is that not only are the key concepts clear and easy to relate to, but it also provides tools to help deal with timewasters, decision making processed and interruptions – including emails.
Funt identifies four main thieves that steal out time and suggests key questions to ask to learn how to reclaim our lives from the thieves of Drive, Excellence, Information and Activity. All good things in and of themselves, but they can equally be guilty of stealing time and attention from allowing us to be truly effective.
This is an excellent book for anyone that feels they are losing control and want to regain it, but it is an even better book for those that think they have it all together – you will be surprised what this book can offer. The author encourages readers to embark on the journey in pairs or as work teams, and that is an excellent suggestion because it will assist in the culture change organisations need.
A highly recommended book.
Purpose in an organisation does not just happen, nor can it be imposed and expected to be universally embraced. A December 2020 article by McKinsey & Company (read it here) acknowledges the special role CEO’s pay in the purpose journey. It notes that CEO’s need the help of the entire organization to ensure the purpose fits and is owned by everyone. The authors propose a series of dialogues about purpose:
Dialogue in the top Team:
Dialogue with your Employees:
Dialogue with Yourself:
Dialogue with the Future:
Dialogue with the World:
Remember that dialogue involves being obliged to listen! As the article notes, “the best leaders use the scrutiny to challenge themselves and the company’s purpose with an aim of improving both.” The challenge for leaders is toe “create an environment where purpose is continually tested, discussed, improved – and ultimately, lived”.
