Understand what leaders do.

 

Here is a pop quiz? What are you mostly occupied answering:

a.     How can we do the work better? Or

b.     What should we be doing instead? 

 Irrespective of what role and level of hierarchy you are in, if you are not thinking on the lines of “b”, you are not doing what leaders do. 

 How can you make your current role into a platform that allows you to do and learn things that leaders do? That will be the topic of the next post. 

 For now, let’s see what leaders devote their time to.  

1.     Bridging across diverse people and groups – About 6 years back, I got promoted from client success manager to the director and head of client success for my company’s India office. Before I could understand and implement what it meant to be a Client Success Director (and no longer a client success a manager), I was invited for a meeting with the country head of a major streaming platform. He was interested in understanding how my company was planning to respond to recent changes in the industry and how would they (as our clients be impacted). I gave him my two cents; however, I knew it wasn’t the most enlightening meeting for my client. Why? Because we have known leadership to be all about  

We have known leadership to be about	It is also about working like a bridge between the team and its external environment
I.         setting clear goals,        II.         assign clear tasks to members      III.         manage the team’s internal dynamics     IV.         communicate regularly, give recognition and so on.	I.         Going out on a reconnaissance making sure the right information and resources each their teams,        II.         Broadcast accomplishments      III.         Secure buy in from higher up when things get controversial     IV.         Monitor competitors or potential teams from whom they can learn and not reinvent the wheel

 

Had I paid attention to the above in addition to taking care of my internal roles or delegated the internal roles to my most experienced team member, not only would I have taken personal interest in the developments of the broader industry better, but I would also have proactively sought guidance on the response our company was planning even if none was communicated to me.  This would have opened potential opportunities for my clients, my team and of course, me. Do remember, that this shift in mindset should not be limited to the designation you hold. It can be made at any level. 

In her book “Act like a leader and think like a leader” Herminia Ibarra gives key examples of how people who came into leadership positions without much background into the nuances successfully created value by becoming bridges.  

2.     Doing the “Vision Thing” – When former US president George H.W. Bush was asked to look away from the short term, specific goals of his campaign and start focusing on a future to which his voters might aspire, he famously replied, “Oh – you mean the vision thing?” 

“Vison” evokes images of those mind-numbing rambles posted on the walls that fail to guide our day to day action. However, the ability to envision possibilities for the future, a dynamic, creative, collaborative process of imagining a transformation in what an organisation does and how it does it, distinguishes leaders from non-leaders.     

So what does having a vision look like in action?

a.     Sensing opportunities and threats in the environment – Simplifying complex situations, seeing patterns in seemingly unconnected phenomenon, foreseeing events that may affect the organization’s bottom line

b.     Setting Strategic direction – Encouraging new business, defining new strategies, making decisions with an eye towards the big picture

c.     Inspiring others to look beyond current practices – Asking questions that challenge the status quo, being open to new ways of doing things, bringing an external perspective 

Take for example the vision that Indira Nooyi set for PepsiCo

“Performance with Purpose”
Tackling the obesity endemic by improving the nutritional status of PepsiCo products	Making PepsiCo an environmentally healthy company

With the rising awareness on health and related eating habits, Nooyi clearly identified the threat to PepsiCo given its product line with high sugar and trans-fat content. She also saw the opportunity to offer healthier packed products to their consumers ahead of the competition. This sharply defined vision resulted in logical steps as mentioned below: 

“Performance with Purpose”
Tackling the obesity endemic by improving the nutritional status of PepsiCo products	Making PepsiCo an environmentally healthy company
I.  Acquisition of brands with healthy product lines such as Quaker Oats and Tropicana                    II. Reduced reliance of the company on high sugar, high-calorie beverages                    III. Removal of trans-fat from all of PepsiCo products before competitors	I.  Strive for Net Zero impact on environment                    II. Reduce plastic used in beverage bottles                    III. Find bio-degradable packaging solutions

 

This vision was long term and risky for short term earnings, but it is also timely and important. 

Many managers assume that vision is top down, and their job is to execute and not envision. But consider this, when empowered front line is in constant touch with customers and suppliers, and the same customers and suppliers increasingly participate in the innovation process, vision and strategy are no longer the preview of the CEO. In today’s day and age executives are required to shift their emphasis from improving current operations and performance indicators to shaping a common understanding of the organisation’s present environment and its desired future direction. 

3.     Engage and then lead

When I had just started working, I was tasked with something very interesting. Nothing short of a leadership opportunity despite being a newly hired management trainee. I was working for a leading newspaper. The circulation department head asked me to implement a brilliant initiative. It was to get people who had newly migrated to the city to subscribe to the newspaper. We would add value to them by providing them all information needed to settle down in the city in lieu of the newspaper subscription. Excited as I was, I quickly got to work turning this idea into a best-in-class model with execution details. The model was highly appreciated by the department head and was signed off for execution. I was confident that the difficult part of envisioning and planning was over, executing it will be a walk in the park. I mailed it to all the people whom I thought would be able to take it forward and waited to hear roaring reviews on my fantastic work. To my dismay, all the hard work that was appreciated by the top management, failed to excite anyone in the department. The little work that got done was by me running around and trying to be a one-man army. 

I had made a rookie mistake. Naïve leaders act if the idea itself is the ultimate selling point. Experienced leaders understand that process is just as important. To implement an initiative or to bring about a sustainable change, a leader must build bridges to those who don’t immediately agree with you. This bridge is built based on the leader’s credibility and the process he chooses to bring about the change. 

Success in leading change = The idea + the process + you.

If I had to go back and pick up the project again, my process would be as follows:

I.         I would first identify the stakeholders needed to make this project a success                II.         Do a one-on-one meeting to brief them about the idea and understand what they thought about this initiative.              III.         This would give me an indication of the champions and the nay-sayers in the group             IV.         I would then try and address the concerns of those opposed to the idea and find a common ground to move ahead.                V.         Not only would it ensure that I have looked at all the factors needed to make the project a success, but this would involve all the stakeholders in the initiative. Involvement leads to ownership of the project.              VI.         Then it would be time to execute

The above process would have involved everyone. This means the initiative would no longer be a top-down directive, but something that the entire team owned and would give their best to bring it to fruition.  

Key steps to leading change	Stylistic choices that influence the change process
I.  Create Urgency                      II.  Form a guide coalition                      III. Craft a vision                      IV. Communicate the vision                       V.  Empower others to act on it                        VI. Secure short – term wins                      VII.  Embed the change in the organisation’s systems and processes	I. Where do I get my information?                      II.  How much do I involve others?                    III.  What people do I involve?                    IV.  How many?                    V. How will I see my ideas?                    VI. What should my role be?                     VII. How fast should we go?

4.                            4. Embody the Change - This is all about “you” of the below formula. 

Success in leading change = The idea + the process + you.

The “You” part will always trump the idea and is the filter through which people evaluate the process.  

We follow people who inspire us, not people who are merely competent. Inspiration is not just about your management style. What people are gauging has to do with your passion, conviction, and coherence. In other words, your charisma. Charisma is less a quality of a person than a quality of a person’s relationships with others i.e. How and why a leader engages followers and what the leader found inspiring about who they were as people. 

Your subordinates, peers and bosses will decide: 

I.         Whether your process is fair               II.         Whether you have the best interests of the organisation in mind (as opposed to simply working to further your career)             III.         Whether you walk the talk.

Take Margert Thatcher for example. What distinguished her from all the other gifted politicians around her was how she used her personal experience to crystallize a powerful political message that she personally embodied. She told stories about herself to convey to people what really mattered and inspire them. About how she learnt to be thrifty and stick to budget. About how she was taught not to follow the crowd but stick to her guns. Her formative experiences profoundly shaped Thatcher’s beliefs as a politician.  She used herself as a metaphor for what she felt was missing in the United Kingdom: a sense of self determination and redemption through hard work and delayed gratification. And she attracted a large following of people who believed what she believed. 

Charismatic leaders have seen to have three things in common:

I.         Strong convictions based on their personal experience      II.         Good and frequent communication, mostly through personal stories    III.         A strong coherence between what they believe, what they actually do and who they are.

Sources :

Act like a leader, think like a leader – Hermia Ibarra

The Leadership Journal – Kris Safarova