Discussing Leadership with Isabelle Nüssli
Today’s leadership landscape has most certainly changed, and it has left many of us wondering how we can not only keep up, but do better. How can we better prepare our businesses, our employees, and ourselves to navigate turbulent times? How can we set ourselves and our people up for continued success, even in the face of a crisis?
We decided to turn to an expert and asked Isabelle.
An international senior executive, Isabelle C. Nüssli brings insider knowledge to her practice as a leadership and personal coach. As "chief energizing officer" for her platform Leverage-Your-Self.com, Isabelle directs a team of experts in business, behavioral economics, and applied psychology that supports business leaders and startups in navigating changes and capitalizing on their organization's full potential.
CC: What are the top 3 qualities a good leader should possess?
IN:
1. Visionary and with a purpose
2. (Self-)awareness – the rest will follow
3. Ability to inspire and engage
1. Visionary and with a purpose
To be visionary as a leader means to have a clear sense of the organization’s long-term direction, regardless of short-term uncertainties. To have a clear vision, to communicate it, and make it understood to the stakeholders is especially important in a world that is VUCA – volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. It is more critical for a visionary leader to know in which direction the organization needs to head than to have a well-defined idea of how to get there.
Purpose can also be called the “philosophical heartbeat.” To have a purpose is motivational for all stakeholders because the connection does not just occur on the level of the head and intellect but also on the level of the heart.
In order for leaders to take on and bear the reputational and financial risks that come with increased uncertainty and unpredictability, a visionary leader must be able to extract a clear, shared, and convincing organizational purpose. But what is the purpose? How much risk is the purpose worth? The answer to these questions lies with values and beliefs. Conversations with employees across all hierarchies will help distill and define this purpose.
There will always be some narrower interests that need to be sacrificed. At the same time, the larger purpose helps adjust the compass in cases of crisis, difficult situations, or challenging decision-making because it helps maintain focus and offers guidance, sustenance, and inspiration.
We often read about skills and qualities leaders should possess. Those need time and effort to be built. But there is a shortcut. The key word is
2. (Self-)awareness
If the level of self-awareness can be increased, many of the much-needed skills follow almost automatically or at least can get developed more easily, such as:
Emotional Intelligence
Agility
Authenticity (plus personal accountability – you could also be an authentic despot)
The courage to speak the truth
Resilience
3. Ability to inspire and engage
Extensive research has shown that the ability to inspire leads to the highest degree of employee commitment and engagement.
CC: How has leadership changed in the last decade? How do you see it changing in the coming year(s)?
IN: The environment is changing and so needs leadership.
The volume and magnitude of change boosted by globalization has never been experienced before. Due to breakthrough technologies, demographic shifts and political transformations, today’s world has become more fast-paced and interconnected than ever. COVID-19 has accentuated all of this.
When dealing with increased complexity, a leader is no longer able to provide ‘the’ answer (if s/he ever was). The call for leadership to adjust has been stronger than the actual results. Meaning, leadership has not yet changed to the degree it could or should have. In times of uncertainties and crisis people call for stronger leadership and guidance.
In politics, this has given rise to ego-type, narcissistic leaders who enjoy their influence of power.
In business, there has first been a tendency toward stronger Corporate Governance. The excesses and scandals of the 90s and 00s, mainly driven by ego and greed, put Corporate Governance on the map. But not all that much has changed since Corporate Governance has been widely introduced. The list of derailment to date is long. More regulations have led to more claims, more lawsuits and more liability coverages.
Even the most accurate and comprehensive system is of little help if it is not ‘lived’ or if the person in charge misuses power and authority.
The falling short of more regulations and checks & balances, together with increasing complexity have increased uncertainty and the need for different solutions: more responsible leadership, human-centricity, and flatter hierarchies.
There is a request of leaders to be more responsible, human, approachable, rounded, holistic, inspirational, resilient. Values and value-based leadership have gained momentum, not only in business.
Yet there is no way around self-leadership: if you want to be a leader, you have to know yourself, otherwise you won’t be able to navigate uncharted waters. But it still is a long way. Why?
Most business people do not like to regard people in organizations as being subject to both conscious and unconscious wishes, fears, anxieties and conflicts. People often find it hard to accept or appreciate the value of concepts applied to business that result from fields other than science. Such explanations of humanity ask for different means of verification compared to empirical science, and this can be a challenging concept for people accustomed to relying on facts and figures. Paradoxically, people tend to consciously deny the presence of unconscious processes but constantly live out such processes via their behaviors and actions. It’s time to change the view that the business world is entirely rational to learn that there is a lot of good in the less rational side, the human side.
The goal remains the same: to select a ‘real’ and ‘the right’ leader, but it is difficult to distinguish between a ‘right’ leader and a ‘wrong’ one. A real leader can be described as someone who has integrity, who generates meaning and builds trust, and who lives and communicates values. Such leaders energize their subordinates, convince them to buy into their vision for the organization and move the human heart. This raises a number of challenges. A lot of business people are ill at ease when discussions turn to less tangible skills such as moving hearts. The questions is ‘are we ready for such discussion topics and hence for more human-centric leadership and solutions that benefit the triple bottom line: people, planet, profit?’
CC: How has 2020 impacted leaders in general?
IN: COVID-19 has turned our world upside down. Nobody was prepared. It has stretched everybody, intellectually, physically, economically, and emotionally to an extend not foreseeable.
Consequently, huge pressure has been put on leaders. Leadership skills and qualities have never been more exposed. Such challenging times and high pressure not only bring strengths but also weaknesses to surface, with regard to both leading others and the self.
Crises call for strong(e)r leadership and more guidance which, in politics has given rise to those that enjoy getting to or staying in power. Such leaders can decide more quickly than leaders of democratic systems, but it is a whole different ball game whether the impact of such decisions is also beneficial for the triple bottom line. All too often, they are not.
In business, it is different. While the calling for guidance remains unabated, home-office has changed the dynamic of the relationship between leaders and subordinates. Dealing with maximum uncertainties, handling pressure from all sides, while leading teams virtually, does not equally suit each leader.
Those leaders – let’s call them bosses – that need to keep nurturing their ego (drawing energy from responses to their physical presence at the office) get increasingly frustrated. The concept they used to nurture their ego and, with it, their sense of identity, is no longer valid. At the same time, many employees have changed their attitude toward leadership during their time spent in the home-office. The dealing with increased uncertainty combined with physical and emotional distance from the office and their bosses have led to questions around purpose and meaning and a newly emerged need for human-centric leadership. It also nurtured the call for transparency and truth-telling (also in politics). When these individuals finally went back to the office after the lockdown, they no longer responded to their boss(es) in the same way they did before. They started to long for a leader that can provide guidance and direction but at the same time for one that is personable and understands their wishes, fears and needs.
COVID has boosted the long-discussed need for less ego and more substance which has resulted in an increasing turnover of top-level leaders. The ability to inspire is needed more than ever.
CC: How did 2020 impact leadership styles and do you see those changes being permanent?
IN: Unlike in business, some politicians still seem to get away with the cementation of their power. Their personality combined with a lack of interaction with the population prevent them from feeling the pulse and getting a reality check. Business leaders that behave in a similar way face a high turnover. Increasingly, employees that can leave an organization in search for better leadership.
In general, the three leadership qualities described in Q1 (provide a vision with a purpose; increase the level of (self-)awareness; inspire others and move the human heart) are gaining weight.
Branded leadership and management theories and experiments come and go (mostly, they go). Two constants remain. One is change. The other is the need to recruit, select, develop, monitor and retain leaders who anticipate and adapt to rapid global, socio-econo-political change and lead through it with the right combination of intelligence, intuition, empathy and stability.
The longer the crisis, the higher the call for humanness. Hence, because there is no ‘going back to the old normal,’ some of these changes might indeed be permanent. The right signs for the ‘adaption to the new normal’ are set and they are driven by grass root groups: employees and voters in politics.
CC: Can you provide examples of good leaders/leadership throughout the pandemic?
IN: What is good for some might be bad for others.
There is, however, a common ground around the understanding of what is considered good leadership. Interestingly, it is related to personality and qualities.
In politics, bad leadership examples stand out, but good ones can indeed be found. For example in New Zealand:
This year, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, has celebrated landslide victories with her policy of kindness, compassion and consideration. Ardern became the world’s youngest female prime minister. She did not have a majority and had to form a coalition with the populist party that has been characterized by tolerant collaboration, endless but respectful debates and compromises.
She sees herself and the people as a team and has guided New Zealand through the Corona year as a "team of 5 million," which has earned her international respect. Kindness is the leadership we need most right now. It is no surprise that Ardern’s leadership has giving rise to diversity in all aspects.
Are the days of bruised and blunted politicians counted?
Could politics in general be friendlier? Some might disagree since arguing, shredding, attacking define political culture. But why? Can it be changed in the future? In business, it’s has been changing. Aside from strength, respectful consideration of different points of view, which leads to the best results, has been called on. Research has long been aware of the value of considerate corporate cultures, working on team spirit and fostering collaboration. So, what exactly speaks against it in politics? It can’t and shouldn’t be the opposite of what counts in our families and what we teach our children: cooperation, team spirit, respect. More than ever, the world needs those who also have hearts and care.
Many people yearn for peace and respect. Kindness is a political power. It is possible to be strong and sensitive. And it is effective.
In business, there are millions of leaders that have demonstrated exceptional leadership throughout the pandemic.
There are two groups that deserve high respect and appreciation:
1. Those leaders of small and big organizations that have been fighting for survival, burning the hard-earned cash to get through the crisis without layoffs. Some of them have become enormously creative and innovative, others forwent their own salary for the benefit of the workforce’s.
2. Those that had no other chance but to close the business and pursued with respect and grace towards their employees and clients. Maybe they were required to be courageous and exit before all the cash and, with it, their pension was gone, maybe they waited until the end.
What both group share is that they kept hope high and demonstrated extraordinary leadership, while operating under highly adverse circumstances.
CC: Is there a particular personality type that is well suited to crises?
IN: A particular type of leader: Yes, the self-aware leader.
In terms of personality types, some types indeed better cope with change than others. However, I think it goes beyond personality typology, not least because there is a second part of the leadership equation: the workforce that needs to be inspired and moved into the right direction, while keeping engagement and productivity high. Hence, I would not (only) focus on personality types but (also) on leaders that constantly keep improving necessary qualities. Leaders well-suited to crisis know themselves well and hence, better and more quickly learn about others to find the best leadership recipe.
Self-knowledge means "deeply understanding one's emotions, strengths and boundaries, recognizing one's own values and motives, and rethinking things rather than reacting impulsively to emotions." The development of self-knowledge takes time and practice. You make conscious decisions where others act and react unconsciously. Many seasoned leaders do not have a well-developed self-knowledge until a personal crisis forces them to think about themselves. This needn’t be the case.
Self-knowledge boosts (self)-awareness. Leaders mastering this discipline can dive into work or any other activities, with full energy. They are more focused, more aware of what’s going on with themselves and the others around them. They can make better decisions, are healthier and end up being more resilient.
But there is an additional category: stormproof leaders can be especially well-suited to lead through crisis because they have been there. They know how they react when everything is at stake and when they and their environment get stretched to the max. Either they have learned through life-changing incidents, previous crisis or a setback (IF they took the chance to learn, about themselves and others, instead of remaining in the victim role, blaming others). The well-praised and widely aspired success-stories don’t help much because nobody knows how such leaders are going to react in a crisis and under enormous pressure, which increases uncertainty. In extreme but not unusual cases, the overconfidence of leaders that have never experienced challenging times or a setback, might keep them from anticipating, reading signs, listening to the environment and ultimately from (re)acting proactively, taking decisions efficiently and effectively.
It comes down to the three leadership qualities stated in Q1: purpose and vision, (self)awareness, the ability to inspire. The better leaders master these qualities, the better they are suited to crisis. Aside from lessons learned, these qualities form excellent pre-conditions to build resilience.
If above is given, the ego will not get into the way. A bit of ego is important because it serves survival. Too much ego is harmful. In everyday business as well as in private, there is too much ego, which destroys value. Good leaders recognize the moments at which the ego kicks in. They ask if the impulses are being directed by the ego or the true self.
In a crisis, good leaders don’t just keep themselves busy for the sake of being busy. Mistakenly, busyness is often treated as effectiveness but it can be a cover up for uncertainties and fears. Good leaders balance action and reflection. And the quicker they learn about themselves, others, and the environment as they navigate unchartered waters, the more quickly they can adjust.
CC: What can leaders do to inspire their teams in the face of so much uncertainty?
IN: A lot! Even before COVID, only 10-15% of employees fell into the category of being ‘engaged’. This number most likely has not risen since.
The ability to inspire is one of the top leadership skills that employees ask of their leaders because it boosts engagement which fosters productivity.
Inspiration is drawn from within. It is an influencing process that stimulates others to do something creative or extraordinary. It involves influencing both mentally and emotionally. It is a pulling and not a driving force that provides a sense of excitement and effortlessness. Especially in situations of change, when a leader wants people to do something different or to change, the desire needs to come from within, as it is one’s values, beliefs, experiences, and preferences that increase the good feeling of achievement.
Because a large part of the foundation of corporate knowledge and wisdom is based on the gray matter of the employees, talent recruiting, development, and retention provide a competitive advantage. The ability to inspire helps to attract top talents and keeps the workforce motivated.
Leaders with the highest scores in ‘ability to inspire’ were the following:
Had a clearer vision
Established stretch goals with the team
Invested time to develop their workforce and showed a higher ability to emotionally connect
Encouraged innovation
Communicated more effectively
Served as role models
Research showed that “more is more,” meaning the more of the above behavior that could be noticed, the higher the leader scored on “inspiration.” Can a leader learn to be(come) inspirational?
Yes. Research found that those who chose to improve their ability to inspire were able to move from the forty-second percentile (below average) to the seventieth percentile in three years. With a focus on awareness, good feedback, and a development plan, they were able to improve.
Inspiring leaders know how to use their unique set of strengths to unlock teams’ higher performance through empowerment, not command and control. Also, they hold people accountable for results.
Leaders that inspire know how to listen, walk the talk, build and nurture trust.
CC: Given your experience with crisis management, what advice do you have for companies struggling to adapt to the new business world today? What can leaders do to prepare for future uncertainty?
IN: First of all, 2021 is out, 513 B.C. is in. As Heraclitus said “there’s nothing permanent except change.” It is critical to adjust mindset and attitude towards ongoing change, which impacts behavior and action.
•Focus
In a crisis, stay focused. Focus on the direction and the problems worth solving not the solutions you are trying to find a problem for. Needs change and you need to adapt swiftly and accordingly. Focus. It is easy to lose direction, get lost in issues or caught up in emotions. It is critical to step back from time to time to look at how the scene reads from the balcony. Where are you headed and why? What matters most right now with regard to the business, clients, workforce, else?
•Change vs. transformation
Today’s turbulent business environment requires a focus on strategic decision making, risk management and situational problem solving. External change often requires change inside the company.
A change in BoD/Management or organizational structure can easily shift people’s positions and responsibilities. Or a change in strategy often leads to further changes such as the need for capital, new management skills, or new ways of processing information. All these changes can cause the organizational power balance to shift unexpectedly. Watch out for these shifts and their consequences.
Change involves people and can trigger emotions, uncertainties and contradictions. Thus, it is not enough just to manage change. A successful change process involves forward-looking leadership. Although change is inevitable, successful change leaders know the importance of the human element. It is tempting to focus on the development and execution of rational plans and processes rather than facing the more challenging yet critical human issues.
Many books and articles have been written on how to best manage change. Most of them underestimate an essential aspect: the transition phase and its impact on people as well as systems. The perception still exists that successful change is a matter of executing a straightforward plan to get from a clearly defined starting point to the targeted objective. Leaders then wonder why their subordinates don’t get tasks accomplished, why deadlines are missed, why costs get out of hand. It is not necessarily the change that people oppose, but the fear of the loss that comes with change. Often, against the common belief, people are not stuck in their minds but in their hearts or stomachs. Whether the fear is real or not, the loss or potential for loss is real.
The challenge does not lie in change itself but in successfully leading people through the transition phase. Change itself focuses on the external (expected new structure or strategy) but transition focuses on the internal (a psychological realignment or adjustment that employees need to undergo before change can be successful).
Transition does not happen automatically. It happens downstream and is slower than change because it embeds 3 distinct processes/phases, each of which has an uncomfortable character:
1. Saying goodbye to the old world.
2. The ‘neutral zone’ requires people to endure the discomfort that comes with change
3. Moving forward requires people to embrace the new that often asks for new thinking and behaving.
The process of leading people through the transition is made even more challenging by other organizational trends and technology changes. For example, boundaries within organizations are being broken up or fading away.
How to best prepare for a crisis (these tools/concepts can also be applied during a crisis):
There are two different buckets to consider: the rational (strategy, structure, regulations, technology) and the more irrational (human element). Regardless of how focused leaders are on their organization’s strategy, Corporate Governance, dealing with change, uncertainty and risk, they concurrently need to ask how the people that ultimately implement all those might behave and act.
Organizations must be flexible in order to adjust to changes on the way. This is related to structure and to mindsets. Aside from staying on top of things with regard to digitization, the following topics help leaders get prepared for future uncertainty:
•Corporate Governance
Corporate Governance should not be considered as ‘the’ magic tool. First of all, it must be lived and secondly, it must be changed proactively, not only subsequent to a crisis.
•Role clarity
Because a lack of role clarity gets accentuated in a crisis, it is critical to pro-actively align roles. This fosters mutual understanding of role assumptions so that everybody can perform to their best.
•Innovation
Innovation does not mean focus on optimizing cash cow(s). And it does not start with a prototype. Because demand can change quickly, you must ensure a systemic and systematic innovation process so that you have a pool of ideas, initiatives and products that increases the likelihood of survival, also in a crisis. If the budget is not previously allocated, innovative initiatives get cut first in a crisis.
•Culture of trust
There is a close link between the personality of a leader, his or her leadership style and the corporate culture. Investors increasingly focus on culture as they realized that companies that better understood how their employees were doing were more successful navigating uncharted waters. They have learned to understand that they better avoid investing in companies with aggressive cultures because such cultures often lead to scandal.
An HBR study showed that people working in high-trust companies perceived 74% less stress than people working in low-trust companies. In addition, they experienced 106% more energy at work, had 13% fewer sick days, reported 76% more engagement and a 29% higher satisfaction rate with their lives, linked to a 40% lower burnout rate. Increased performance is a consequence of these elements.
What is needed are credible commitments in good times so that they hold in a crisis.
Bottom line: Ahead might be a marathon and hence, it might be wise not to use sprint pace. Energy needs to be cultivated and invested well. The better leaders know the organization, the workforce and themselves, the better they are able to navigate change.
CC: As mentioned on your website, how do power, politics, and culture come into play in current organizational dynamics?
IN: Today’s business world moves at breathtaking speed that entails ever-increasing demands on leadership. Politics and power games run rampant in the highest tiers of organizations, creating a climate of frustration, exhaustion, and mistrust.
Some leaders just accept that the constant presence of politics and conflict is how business is. But they couldn’t be more wrong. While this is indeed common, it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, business works better when the relational environment is more fluid. Power games are unnecessary and benefit no one. In fact, unhealthy conflicts left unaddressed end up harming company’s culture, people’s engagement/productivity, and ultimately performance.
Facing intense pressure not only from the outside competition but also from within organizations, senior leaders often feel increasingly overwhelmed and, at the same time, unwilling to betray any hint of vulnerability to their co-leaders or colleagues. This pressure brings to light all sorts of fears and doubts that interfere with engagement and productivity, especially when combined with power games and conflicts among fellow leaders. When psychological suffering is this intense, it bleeds out of the office into every aspect of an executive leader’s life (it is a 3-leg chair: business, family, me. A 3-leg chair needs three steady legs). Far too many leaders never reach out for help, convinced that this level of stress and conflict is normal—an unfortunate but unalterable aspect of working at the top of the corporate pyramid.
Business does not have to be this way. While the business world is constructed as a rational system, its practical functions are full of irrational behavior. The goal is certainly not to create a work environment so harmonious that it is completely conflict-free. That would be an illusion. A certain amount of tension is healthy, but only when trust can be built on it.
There is good news: leaders and organizations can get a handle on this pattern of compounding conflict drivers to improve these relationships, which will impact an organization’s culture, productivity, and performance. Solutions are multifold. It is critical for leaders to spend more time with each other (reduced time means reduced quality of communication), increase role clarity, understand their own meaning of and dealing with power and how their patterns and emotions drive their behavior and action.
In sum, it can be said that a lot depends on the leaders at the top. They must invest time and energy, reflect, get the balcony perspective and not just act from the stage. The key point is that they reflect on which direction they run and why and for whom. They should regularly put themselves in the counterpart’s shoes and try to understand how he/she sees the world.
With this, relationships at the top can be leveraged and responsible leadership can be fostered, which will positively impact the protagonists, culture, workforce and ultimately results. Responsible Leadership is always a very personal concept, in that the leader determines his/her own values and the meaning of responsibility to him/her. So there is not one, single correct and absolute definition. Because of that it is up to every individual to reflect on it, and hence have something to measure his/her behavior against. I trust that you will find your own working definition of responsible leadership so that you can choose your behavior & actions accordingly. The world needs responsible leaders – more than ever.
CC: What should be the primary focus of leaders today?
IN: Balancing purpose and direction of the company with leadership of the self and others.
Direction provides focus on the way in which to go. You often hear ‘clients first’. Well, if you take care of you employees, rest assured they will take care of the clients. At the same time, watch yourself. As a leader you are part of every move and hence, you cannot bracket yourself out of the equation. Good leaders know (to lead) themselves.
It is critical to concurrently build a culture of trust (extend trust and trust others), while keeping a minimum of checks & balances in place that help with the common understanding (rules of the game) and provide guidance. But the glue to above is trust. Trust and confidence become a rare commodity and hence, they will add to the future USP of organizations and their leaders.
CC: How can someone in a non-leadership role prepare themselves to be a good leader in the future?
IN: If someone asks me: “What do you recommend to someone who wants to become an author?" I respond: “This the wrong question to ask. Is there a message or learning you would like to convey or an impact you want to make?”
This is similar with regard to leadership: you shouldn’t become a leader for the sake of becoming a leader. It is important to ask why you want to be a leader? Do you want to grow and build something that positively impacts or makes a difference in the world? Do you want to inspire others and help them grow personally and professionally?
Then you should…
Get to know yourself
What drives you? What are the qualities, patterns, skills that help you reach your goals? Which ones are hindering? Which ones are missing? The greater this knowledge, the greater the chance of building a pool of resources and qualities that benefits the company and all stakeholders.
Seek feedback for reality check.
Historically, the jester served the purpose of giving honest feedback to the king. Today, executives seek feedback from employees and colleagues. Family and close friends deliver the best reality check. Listen carefully if you want to receive honest feedback. Your environment knows you best and can provide valuable insights, even if they are unpleasant.
All leaders need people at their side whom they can trust and ask for feedback & advice. These people will tell the truth regardless of their status or title.
Get a coach
You can’t start early enough. Investing in a good coach is a worthwhile endeavor. And the earlier a person starts, the better. With age, it gets more difficult to break unproductive habits and patterns.
Seek role clarity
Align roles in organizations so that everybody has a clear understanding of one’s role and the ones of others. But most of the time, roles are not discussed and aligned. This often leads to conflicts.
Get the balcony perspective
No athlete—even at the most elite level—exercises twelve hours a day. Every single one of them schedules time for breaks in their training in order to physically and mentally recover. However, it is far too common for top executives to expect twelve or fourteen hours of “practice” (i.e., work) every day, without taking even ten minutes to step back and look at the big picture. As a result, they become disconnected, acting on impulses without evaluating whether they are truly helpful.
Reflection happens when you step outside the situation and look at it from another perspective, much like an actor pausing a scene, stepping off the stage, and getting on the balcony.
Learn from experiences and setbacks
Steve Jobs said once that “the dots can't be connected in advance.” How true!
It is not about the nature of the experience, it is about what we make of it. We are in control of our balance sheet. We all want to stand on the plus side. We have the choice to present what we have experienced on the negative side or on the positive side. Dissatisfaction does not lie in past-related experiences but in what we make out of them.
Build your network
It doesn't matter how many people you know, but how well you know them. Invest in relationships. Spend time in personal conversations. This allows you to go deeper, build trust – the glue of any good relationship. Learn about and from others and at the same time about yourself.
A network can be one of the biggest assets. But you need to set aside expectations. Sometimes, it comes back later or a different way.
Inspire and support others
For my book, I asked each interviewed leader the same question in the end: “How do you want to be remembered?" Aside from being a good parent, almost all of them said that they want to be remembered as a good person that encouraged and helped grow others. Sometimes, I asked a follow-up question: do you live your life according to how you want to be remembered?
CC: Are there trends in personal and/or professional development that create good leaders?
IN: Yes, there are.
From a professional standpoint, there is definitely an emphasis on digitization, on thinking in scenarios and challenging the company’s strategy and business model on an ongoing basis. Organizations must adjust quickly to changes. But so must leaders.
Hence, from a personal standpoint, I see the following trends:
The need for holistic leaders
Internal and external recruiters increasingly look beyond the track record, IQ and technical skills. They look at the human side, the willingness, ability and potential to grow and develop. If this trend had a name, it would be called ‘human-centricity.’ Given this, it will not come down to the question of ‘human or machine’ but to how these two can best collaborate.
Coaching
Compared to other disciplines, coaching is a relatively young field, but it has gained strong popularity in the past decade. Investing in a good coach is a worthwhile endeavor.
A good coach…
o Is an active listener and a pattern-spotter
o Can help set your own personal goals for professional growth and development
o Helps identify and/or clarify vision, goals, personal drivers, and purpose
o Helps release blockages, which are common, to increase focus and energy
An unknown source brings it home: “Acknowledging you have areas to work on is not an admission of failure; it is an admission that you have even more potential.”
Remember, if you’re headed in the wrong direction, life considers U-turns to be legal, in all jurisdictions.
CC: Is leadership the result of nature vs nurture? How do each impact the development of a good leader?
IN: Both.
After decades of debate, today it is agreed that there are two basic determinants of personality: 50% stems from heredity/nature/genes and 50% from past interactions with the environment/nurture.
Given this fact, there is a big part that can be influenced. Let us assume responsibility and ownership for this part. It is too easy to say ‘I can’t change, it is my genes’.
In the words of Prof. Manfred Kets de Vries, one of the world’s foremost thinkers on leadership development and organizational change:
“Each employee has his or her own “inner theatre,” a program that each individual has incorporated from both nature and nurture. … This inner theatre is a product of genetic inheritance and childhood experience. The interplay between the two leads to highly complex motivational need systems. … Each individual carries these mental schemas…throughout life.”
For example, the way a person related to his or her caregivers during the first years can determine how this person will relate to others as an adult. This script of life, or how you experience and internalize childhood, also leads to patterns that define expectations of others’ responses and how you react to them. Very often, this script becomes unproductive in adulthood.
Luckily, these behaviors are not set in stone. The key lies in recognition of how your past has shaped your present. This is where awareness comes into the picture. Nobody is immune to the drivers of impulses and emotion, but psychological awareness is the first step to psychological health.
Personal development works. And it can be addictive.
In the words of Dr. Kevin Leman, birth order expert:
“If you understand your background and how you responded to it back then and how you respond to it now, you can decide how you want to improve.”
It is not rocket science. Sure, it can be challenging, but so is preparing for and running a marathon. The family origins, past experiences, and life-changing incidents that shape us form the unique portfolio that each of us has to deal with. Regardless of what yours might look like, thriving in a leadership context requires making a concerted effort to do something productive with it.
For a responsible leader, this means to use the influence of leadership to make a positive impact.