Who are the characters in your leadership tool kit?
Most of us have been asked at one time or another to describe the leader we aspire to be. We tend to define our aspirations as either a desired reputation;
I want to be trusted and respected or a particular outcome; I want to build a great team that balances the people and profit.
When faced with these responses, I always find myself asking questions like:
How will you bring that to life? or
What's in your leadership tool kit (or needs to be) that makes you able to produce that result? or
What leadership 'identity' or character will be most useful in your current context?
What do I mean by leadership character? When thinking about leaders' roles, I like to draw on other professions for inspiration in characterising the tool kit.
With apologies for the Sesame Street-esque alliteration, I wonder, are you a:
Painter creating a picture of the vision enabling your team to visualise a desired outcome?
Plumber clearing the blockages that are preventing individuals or teams from achieving their outcomes?
Pathologist diagnosing, defining and clarifying the problems to be solved, and empowering others to execute the solutions?
Producer connecting people and resources in service of the team's goals?
Parent - supporting and encouraging those around you?
In truth, most of us are all of these things some of the time. We can draw on these skills to varying degrees as the need arises. I picture a series of dials we can turn up and down at will.
Some dials we turn up with unconscious, natural ease and some we need to activate with conscious intention. In both cases, we risk miscalculating our setting, under or overplaying our approach.
Understanding the context is the key to striking the right balance in your 'leadership identity settings'.
Once you understand the context, you can intentionally adjust your 'leadership identity settings' to match the team's needs.
Here are a few questions that my coaching clients have found helpful for understanding their context and adjusting their settings:
What is happening in the world that affects us? Look to macro trends like the increasing global shipping costs that occurred during the peak of COVID-19 to help answer this question.
What is happening in our industry that affects us? For example, is new technology changing how your competitors deliver products to your customers?
What is happening in our company and my team? For example, are you undergoing wholesale restructuring, including redundancies?
What is happening for the individuals in your team outside their work life? At any one time, you might have team members moving house, grieving a loved one, celebrating a milestone or welcoming a new baby into the family. These major life events contribute to what they might need from you.
Once you have a clear view of the context, you can focus on what your team needs most and how you can best show up for them.
Imagine you lead a team that grew significantly in response to the popularity of a new product line. Funding to fuel the growth was abundant. Now competitors have entered the market with a 'fresher' offering. Your sales have lagged, and pressure is on you to reduce the team while increasing performance.
How are you thinking about calibrating your settings?
What is the role of your Parent dial in supporting departing team members and encouraging those who remain?
How can you bring your Pathologist to the fore to assist with diagnosing the most significant challenges?
Is your Plumber needed to remove specific things or people getting in the way?
The key is to set your intentional choices in place, observe reactions and adapt as required.
And remember to seek feedback designed to help you adjust the dials and look for signs that your context has shifted.