Most of us who have held at some point a leadership position, read books, attended training sessions and workshops, and watched tutorials on leadership. We have tried to put in practice some of the received information. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. When the teachings don’t work, the two most common causes I noticed are the personal and the environmental incompatibility with a certain leadership style. One of the observations I made was that the leadership style is a really personal matter. While of course each individual style falls in a certain larger category (Goleman’s leadership styles crosses my mind as a good classification), in the end authenticity and uniqueness make someone a leader.
That’s why, it is very important to experience various styles and techniques with the self-discovery purpose in mind. Just try and feel what resonates with you and keep only those that seem right. Over time I tried to attain a deeper understanding and I found out that a leadership style is in the end the result of a number of principles that are built on top of a set of core values. Being asked by my colleagues what are the principles I currently use, I compiled the following list:
- Be a servant leader
- No bullshit
- Always go for the win-win
- Good for you and the group
- Go to the root cause
- No one left behind
- Question everything
1. Be a servant leader
A leadership role is not about you, it’s about the group whose leader you are. Put your efforts and energy in helping others to advance. Help them grow, provide resources and be a safety net for their failures. Measure your effectiveness in doing that, for instance: how your team mates grow, how fast they advance on the career path, how their degree of engagement and happiness evolve over time.
2. No bullshit
Especially during difficult situations you need to be open and honest. There is no use in sugar coating a difficult situation. This does not mean to be disrespectful or non-empathetic. A big mistake is to treat adults like children. Have the courage to discuss with your team mates the situation the way it is. This will get your team mates’ trust. Having the trust of the group, you will find together the best solution given the circumstances.
3. Always go for the win-win
You may find yourself in situations where various stakeholders have opposite interests. Thus you are caught in the cross fire. A possible tendency is to start judging who’s right, who’s wrong, what’s fair, and so on, and to make decisions based on this type of reasoning. I think the best results are obtained if you detach yourself emotionally and have the bird view of the whole situation. Next step is to identify what the win-win solution is. Often there is a win-win solution. Having identified it, it’s relatively easy to facilitate and get all stakeholders agreement on the proposed solution. The key aspects are to detach and to truly understand “what”, and more importantly “why” each stakeholder wants something.
4. Good for you and the group
For the sake of discussion, I will list the two ends of the spectrum in terms of leader’s attitudes: extreme selfishness and absolute altruism. None of them are sustainable in the long run for a successful leader. While selfishness will become pretty obvious to your team over time, despite of well-crafted words, neglecting yourself for the group and feeling a sense of sacrifice will finally result in burn out and frustration. It’s better to understand that you and your group are one, and to care sincerely for both the group and yourself. A good illustration might be the Nash equilibrium:
5. Go to the root cause
Group dynamics can be influenced by many things. There is a high degree of complexity involved. From a key member of the team becoming demotivated to various rumors that circulate around. In order to be able to take the right actions, you really need to understand the root cause. Complex situations don’t yield easily the root cause. A technique that I learned from Lean is the “5 whys method” invented by Taiichi Ohno at Toyota. Repeat the question “why” 5 times, each time the previous answer being the start point for the next “why” question. Typically, iterating 5 times is enough to get to the root cause.
6. No one left behind
At some point, all of us might hit a rough patch, be it for instance a health problem or a family problem. It is very comforting and motivating to know that someone really understands your current situation and cares about you. Conversely, not being empathetic and not trying to help a team mate during difficult times is one of the most demotivating factors.
7. Question everything
I am using this principle as an antidote against taking things for granted and complacency. It is very healthy to constantly question yourself and to question why a situation played out in a certain way. People frequently question only when something went bad. I think it is as important to question also why things are going well when they are going well. It is a source of great insight and allows you to identify and use consciously the factors that have a good impact.
*Featured Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash
Simple Leader 