Who’s in your leadership shadow?
As a leader, like it or not, people will draw conclusions about you. They’ll decide what you believe, think and value. They’ll do it because “knowing” those things guides them to decide whether they want to work for you and how hard. It’s a way for them to decide whether or not they fit in your company. And if you don’t tell them, they’re likely to make it up. It’s not that they lie…more like they fill in the gaps.
One way to think about great leadership is to consider how you can minimise the gaps yourself. Your leadership shadow does this by acting as a sort of organisational Polyfilla (or spackle for the Americans among us).
Casting your leadership shadow acts as organisational Polyfilla
Every choice you make creates an impression on your team. The things you you say and do, the questions you ask, the performance standards you uphold and the meetings you attend all, in combination, send a strong message to your people about what is important to you. And the things you choose NOT to do or say send an equally strong message.
“A man is known by the company he keeps” — Aesop
But leadership shadow is about more than just you. It’s also about the people you surround yourself with. Your team.
Part of knowing yourself as a leader is looking at the people you hire, develop, promote and exit the organisation.
People will judge you based on the decisions you make about others. Your team are looking for a signpost that says “espoused values are lived here”.
Here are my 5 steps making sure your people signposts are pointing in the right direction:
Step 1: Understand the values you’re actually living
I’m not talking about the aspirational poster that hangs on the wall. I’m talking about understanding and acknowledging the way decisions really get made, the people and topics that truly get prioritised and the people that are held up as shining examples of success in your world.
Step 2: Reduce your monthly Polyfilla consumption
Don’t leave gaps open to interpretation. Be open and explicit about what is important to you and why. But talking about it is not enough — you’ve got to ensure that there is consistency and alignment between what you say is important and the choices you make. People pay more attention to actions than words.
Step 3: Hire others that can do the same
Surround yourself with people who have the skills you need — both technically and in leadership. Build a strong base that investors, customers and prospective employees can all trust in.
Step 4: Don’t hold them back
Develop as many of your team as you possibly can. I don’t mean send them on a training course now and then. Open your team up to new experiences, find opportunities for them to learn (and to fail!) and integrate those learnings into what you do. Encourage new ways of thinking that create opportunities to disrupt yourselves — or someone else will.
Step 5: (Re)move the ones that don’t fit
When someone doesn’t “fit”, the truth is everybody (including them) usually knows it. Keeping them around can have lasting, toxic effects on everyone. How you handle a situation like this has important implications (legal and ethical) for you as a leader and for the team — but not handling it may have even more significant implications in the long term.