In our VUCA world, leadership is more important that ever before, but since 2023, most S&P 500 companies don’t even see their 16th birthday. Here’s how to actually get stuff done as a manager, a team leader, or a CEO. How? With and through other people.
Queue: people management problems…
A simple fact about management and leadership roles is that nothing can be done without a cohesive team. That’s why leaders must have a natural affinity for people to be effective not only in the short term, but consistently enough to achieve longevity in whatever industry that they represent.
Along with this, you have to be able to drive results. A failure to execute could mean a failing company. According to studies by McKinsey, big companies used to have a lifespan of 61 years, now it’s down to below 20 years.
In a world where humans are living longer than ever before, the failure to execute is a common 21st century problem. The predictions for future results aren’t looking so bright wither with a long-term trend of ‘declining corporate longevity… expected to fall even further throughout the 2020s’.
Why?
An increased vulnerability to change and required input of management energy. The bigger the company, the more energy is required to keep it alive.
Re-inventing Leadership: What exactly needs to change?
Today, business is a battle for attention.
We need to and are beginning to transition away from traditionally-led hierarchies. ‘Command and control’ is the most simple and obvious style of leadership, as well as the most uncomfortable. But this is how our for-fathers consistently achieve results: by whip and chain.
Today, control and order is much more ambiguous. Achieving results requires collaborating with individuals who are not under your direct control. Being able to communicate effectively with various departments, stakeholders, vendors, and other parties is essential in directing results.
So, the answer is simple: out with the old, in with the new! Our approach to management has to evolve.
Instead of striking underperforming teams, it’s time to strike a balance between soft skills and hard skills.
The New Leadership Style: A Game of Influence & Trust
Leadership used to be a a clear-cut exercise. Its new version is emotional and political. By leaning into its emotional and political side, modern leadership also brings with it the potential to greatly amplify effects. Today, you can be successful in a way that used to be near impossible in the past, by simply building networks of influence and trust.
To lean into your this new leadership game, informal power becomes king.
What do we mean by informal power?
Informal power results from personal characteristics. It is not tied to any specific position other than being a trusted colleague. It’s something that cannot be forced by those who have weak communication or emotional intelligence. Informal power is then directly connected with influence; since more people have natural respect for you, they will naturally follow – it’s natural leadership.
Informal or ‘soft’ skills can and must be developed. What an individual may truly struggle to develop is a genuine interest in people.
Because in the battle for attention, emotion always wins.
For example, imagine a leader that dropped the status quo, and instead:
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- Considered your unique skills
- Provided you with a detailed development plan and regular feedback
- Motivated you to aim high and drive meaningful change within the organisation that you share
- Who could drive results whilst maintaining their integrity
This is what transformational leadership looks like. By not only embracing challenge and change, but expecting it, this new leadership style leads by turning people problems on its head.
‘Leaders take people where they wouldn’t have gone before’
Henrik Kissenger
By defining leadership as an action rather than a title, it answers all the hard questions first. A leader who is focused on the team from the start will be able to perform magic; establish a company culture which prioritises trust as its primary behaviour.
De-centralising leadership: Making everyone responsible for success
Centralised control is limiting.
Firstly, it turns it’s back on the real meaning of teamwork. Teamwork should allow autonomy and trust. When you don’t feel like your contributions are noticed are valued, when you can’t be trusted to make simple decisions, where is the purpose?
By sharing responsibility and the value of accountability throughout a team, people are forced to depend on each other in a way that promotes integrity. It also encourages more proactive decision making where mistakes are tolerated as long as they lead to learning and development.
Embracing your ‘dark’ side to actually get stuff done
Having ‘the edge’ in modern leadership means embracing your human side – both the light and the dark.
This is what leading from the ‘inside out’ looks like.
There are times when you have to discover the dark side of leadership. Focusing on positivity alone misses the point. The edge (or dark side) of leadership is an element of ruthlessness. As Jo Owen recounts in our podcast episode; every great leader is ruthless to a point.
Ruthlessness is a side effect of un-diverted focus. Leaders who are focused on going to the next level are going to display ruthlessness to some level… Not to be nasty or unpleasant but to actually get stuff done.
An example may be a severely underperforming colleague who’s been given the opportunities to improve but hasn’t. What’s worse is they’re also one of your closest friends. At the same time, their performance is vital for either retaining customers, achieving goals, or the general success of the business. You may have to demote them or exclude them from the business entirely. Sounds heartless, right?
‘This inside-out journey is nuanced and complex. It calls for personal growth, which means you must constantly be learning, listening, inspiring, and caring.’
For the individual, leadership is a process of self-invention (or re-invention for some). For the team, leadership means showing the path forward and making it as easy as possible to follow that path to the finish line.
Trust is the new currency of leadership
In a world with less formal leadership, people must lead by more organic methods. In the 21st century, trust is the new currency of leadership. But how do you achieve that trust? And how do you get others behind your agenda?
Trust is made up of four aspects that are set against risk.
Jo Owens structures them like this, in what he calls ‘The Trust Equation’:
Function of social alignment
We gravitate to similar people because we understand what they are or aren’t saying. Listen to people as well as talk to build social alignment. Listen twice as much as you speak, let them talk about their favourite subject. Be nice, be human.
Goal of social alignment
There are all sorts of different priorities competing for attention in the workplace: funding, promotions, time with management.
To achieve goal alignment, you must learn to both give and take. Giving because you can and being genuinely open. You must also be really interested in the people that surround you.
This could be calling into the different offices, meeting all these people that are associated with the organisation. The aim is to build strong professional relationships.
‘No problem on earth can’t be solved over a cup of tea’
Jo Owen
This means that great leadership requires taking the opportunities to talk to your team and genuinely getting to know them. Remote working can make this difficult because what these regular conversations do above anything else, is provide you with early warning of any issues.
Credibility
Credibility is the need to deliver. We judge ourselves by our intentions, other by actions.
This means providing no false promises as leaders. It is also in an individuals ability to have the difficult conversation at the beginning not an impossible one at the end that builds credibility.
A leader should mover with total transparency, setting clear expectations, and maintaining selfless in benefit of the bigger picture.
Selflessness
A leader practicing selflessness will organise a team in such a way as to unlock the full potential of the people around them, creating opportunities for them to achieve their goals. It is doing all of this without expecting anything in return. Selflessness can be a simple and regular act, even going unnoticed.
A selfless leader will also recognise their own need for development, as this is an ongoing process for everyone.