4 minute read
Anne Boden: Show, don’t tell
by CMI_
The only model of leadership that can work today is one where those at the top focus their energies on setting context
Words / Anne Boden
We are, without a doubt, in a new age of work. Whether it’s fully remote working, or a hybrid model of a couple of days a week in the office, this new, flexible model is here to stay. Trust, respect, collaboration and connectivity are what dictate employee performance today.
The old model of command and control is completely redundant in this environment. Not that some leaders haven’t tried to maintain it, whether by ordering everyone back to their desks at the earliest opportunity, or by conducting business as usual with a slew of daily Zoom or Teams meetings to “check in” on the team. These measures have fallen flat because employees, unsurprisingly, don’t enjoy the implicit accusation that they can’t be trusted to do their jobs properly.
Leadership needs to evolve to embrace the opportunity this new way of working has presented to us. The only effective model in this environment is one where those at the top focus their energies on setting context. Rather than telling people what to do, we need to describe the circumstances, outline the environment a task needs to be completed in and any challenges the organisation is facing. We don’t need to direct every single move thereafter. We must trust that members of our teams are the experts in their field, which is why they were appointed in the first place.
No one can work effectively if they are left completely in the dark and just told what to do. Given enough context and left to get on with it, individuals are much more likely to make sound decisions. Not only is this more motivating for everyone involved, it also produces better results. Individuals will inevitably have more time to think about a problem than a leader who is juggling dozens of different things at once. This translates into being more agile and responsive in a changing environment.
For many leaders, this will involve a big change in outlook. Those who fail to evolve will simply become a bottleneck in their organisation. None of us can be everywhere in a hybrid world – it’s impossible. Full disclosure, I have experience of the negative outcomes of being a bottleneck; fortunately, it was at the beginning of my career. I was in my first “big job”, acting as a consultant running a significant project in a City trading room. I tried to control everything, from planning to decision-making, while also liaising with all the stakeholders. Unsurprisingly, things slowed to a snail’s pace. It took one of my colleagues to tell me, somewhat bluntly, that while I felt I was doing a great job, I was actually holding things up. This was the start of a change in leadership style for me. I realised that working smarter meant setting context.
Leaders juggling many different tasks are unlikely to be on top of everything
An important first step is to clear away the notion that a great leader can do everything. Or, more specifically, is the best at everything. I come across this a lot. There will be, say, a technical specialist who is promoted to lead a whole group of technical specialists. Almost overnight there will be a noticeable change. They believe they need to do a much better job than all the other technical specialists. Yet their capabilities have not changed. If anything, they are lessened because they have less time to devote to their role as a technical specialist, since they are time-constrained by the leadership role.
There are countless experts at all levels at Starling who know far more about their subject areas than I do. It is my role to release this talent, and I do this by letting them know I respect their judgment. I’ve also aimed to create an environment where people can talk. This doesn’t mean a series of one-to-ones. I never sit down and say, “Let’s discuss targets and objectives.” When I’m with the team, we talk about real issues. I set the context and let them tell me how they believe we can move things forward. Knowing when to step away and when you can add value is a crucial leadership trait when it comes to hybrid working. I’m open to expanding my own knowledge all the time so I have the tools to set the right context and can contribute where needed. I listen closely to people at all levels because they have analysis and insight that I might not yet have. During online conversations, I frequently add to my knowledge by Googling things as I go.
The new world is the opposite from what went before, when objectives were set at the top level and then cascaded down through the organisation. Believe me, though, there is far more pleasure in giving teams context and letting them be awesome, rather than trying to control everything from the top. And it’s much more effective, too.
