Shaking Up What You Know About Leadership
When you hear the word leadership? What do you think of? You may think about a specific person, persona, or profile. Or perhaps you have a series of lived experiences that have defined good and bad leadership for you. Many people think about leadership as a position, a name on an org chart or the person in charge. However, there is a rapidly evolving realization that the next generation of leadership is motivated by identity, purpose, humility, and responsibility to others rather than power, position, and authority. “Command and control” leadership is quickly fading away along with old paradigms of work.
The Future of Work Points to Conscious Impact and Change
If you are staying close to workplace and work life trends – you’re probably overwhelmed with a myriad of data, perspectives, and information about the future of work and leadership. The 3 main global themes worth noting are as follows:
The Great Resignation/Attrition/Re-shuffling (all the buzz words): this sounds eerily similar to the “war for talent” (remember that one?) but it has some nuances. With a growing gig economy, emerging workforce, and evolving social contracts of what talent expects out of leadership and the workplace, 41% of workers are considering leaving or changing jobs as I write this in February 2022. The empowerment pendulum is shifting to the people and there is an energized conversation around the impact of leadership and work on the masses.
An Aging and Emerging Workforce: where we used to have five generations in the workplace, we’re now seeing Baby Boomers taking the opportunity to retire, which is creating a massive skill gap and a growing entry point for an emerging generation in the workplace– Generation Z.
Social Responsibility and Conscious Business: And speaking of Generation Z, expectations around business’ social impact and responsibility is at top of mind for the next generation. The growing (Millennial) and emerging workforce (Gen Z) have a strong and accountability focused mindset on business’ involvement in societal and humanitarian issues such as mental health, environmental issues, societal disparities, and discrimination.
Leadership as a Mindset Around Impact – The Leadership Mentality
In a modern workplace, thinking about leadership as the person in charge is missing a piece of the puzzle. Leadership - the state of mind and mentality has little to do with position and more to do with impact, service to others and having a positive influence on others. As a modern leader, there are 3 elements that I’ve identified as crucial to your growth and journey as an Impact Leader – which I called the Leadership Mentality: YOU, TEAM and WE.
YOU - Self Awareness and Courage
It starts with an internal awareness and the courage to reflect, iterate, and improve. Jim Collins describes the concept of a “Level 5 Leader.” In Collins’ research for the book Good to Great, this “persona” of leadership emerged as a key player in transforming organizations from “good” to “great.” Level 5 leadership is a balance (a yin and yang of sorts) of personal humility and professional will. In other words, you’re able to:
Be modest and vulnerable enough to admit when you’re wrong and
See yourself as a life-long learning
While also demonstrating an unwavering resolve to improving and progressing.
This sweet spot is an important balance for any leader to maintain while they are looking to see their leadership mentality flourish. Here are some key questions/considerations to cover this part of the model. If you have a boost of courage: talk to 2-3 people to answer these questions about you.
Do you want to lead and serve? In what areas?
How would you like to show up as a leader? What impact do you want to have on others?
How are you showing up? How are your behaviors impacting others?
What are you doing well? How are your behaviors positively impacting others?
What could you work on to improve your leadership behaviors? (Tip: talk to 2-3 people)
TEAM - Climate and Care
Inspiring a group of people to achieve a common goal is a cornerstone of leadership. HOW a leader accomplishes this is usually where the discussion around “good” or “bad” management comes into play. For example, many leaders (in the past and currently) have used force, fear, and intimidation to reach a state of influence, power, or result. This dark side of leadership is a toxic way to destroy organizational culture, break trust and undermine entire teams – leading to short-term results through fear or manipulation with long term damage on people, the organization and sustainable results.
Compare this to the leader who uses inspiration, inclusion, care for people and empowerment to achieve a common goal. The difference between these 2 strategies is the mentality of the leader. Empathetic leadership is linked to better outcomes, more innovation, more engagement, increased retention, and better holistic wellness outcomes.
The Leadership Mentality is not only the HOW you are going to accomplish your goal or reach your outcomes, but also the mentality and sense of responsibility you have to others who are coming along with you.
Here are some key questions/considerations to cover this part of the model:
Think about a team you are leading (formally or informally). How can you be in service to them? How can you remove barriers?
Where might there be opportunities to give your team additional empowerment and ownership over their work?
What structures have you set up to ensure your team feels supported and connected?
What do you know about your team as humans? (motivations, aspirations, challenges, etc.?)
How are you creating psychological safety (people feel safe to speak up and be authentically themselves) in the spaces you lead?
WE - Community and Culture
With the emergence of more remote and hybrid working, leading virtually or in a hybrid work environment only elevates the need for effective leadership that can actively create a sense of belonging and build community. Key leadership characteristics such as empathy, clarity and the ability to build relationships have never been more important.
Here are some key questions/considerations to cover this part of the model:
In what communities do you have influence?
What opportunities do you have to build community and increase belonging and positive change in your sphere of influence?
Let’s Get to Work & Top 5 Tips
We all can lead – regardless of position or where we sit on an organizational chart. The future of leadership is communal, humble and focused on community and inclusion – not as an exclusive outdated workplace experience. The next generation of talent expects an elevated version of leadership that we’ve seen in the past – which we believe will evolve into a leadership mentality. Here’s a hot 5 recap about what we learned today about how to shift to a leadership mentality:
DO reflect often and have the courage and humility to change.
DON’T see leadership as an end game – it’s an on-going journey where you will never arrive.
DO seek out examples of leadership that inspire you.
DO what you can to create psychologically safe spaces.
DON’T underestimate the positive power of your leadership and influence.
References & Resources:
Leading Below the Surface: LaTonya Wilkins
The 3 Keys to Influential Leadership: Fast Company
Exerting Influence without Authority: Harvard Business Review
Empathy Is The Most Important Leadership Skill According To Research: Forbes.com
