Acting Like a Leader

By: Michael DeVenney

“What got you here won’t keep you there or get you there.”
Marshall Goldsmith

In the end, individual performance can only take you so far. You have a big decision to make as an elite performer.

Is it all about you – or is it about something bigger?

Individual performers can make huge contributions and can be stars in their firms. However, their impression leaves with them. Making a lasting difference is about moving beyond your own individual contribution and thinking and acting as a leader.

Working as a leader is not a position or a title – it is a mindset and the way you act. You achieve more with the leader mindset. You coach the performance of others and build greater engagement in those on your team and around you and accomplish greater strategic results. Leaders are catalysts of change and responsible for the strategic and cultural success of their team. Leaders communicate a vision of a bigger future and a supportive environment to get there.

Most professionals and executives are not realizing their best results – mainly because of people. Despite the rhetoric about “investing in people” and proudly proclaiming “people are our greatest asset”, the reality is different. Less than 20% of people in senior positions (even those with the titles and salaries) work with a leader mindset.

Leadership is the true competitive advantage. What is expected of a leader is the same across the generations. To act with a leader’s mindset, we expect four qualities from you:

• The ability to lead people by delegating and empowering
• The ability to provide the resources needed for success
• The ability to build and lead effective teams
• The ability to generate business results

We expect leaders to provide the supportive environment for workers to succeed together.


Evaluations

Developing the leader mindset begins with understanding the audience. What do followers look for in leaders and how do they evaluate leaders today?

What we have seen in our market research is that although we like our leaders and we think they are smart – we wish they would ask and listen better. Despite respecting the depth of their expertise we still feel they are not providing what we as employees need to succeed.

Teams evaluate their leaders' abilities today low in their ability to communicate and lead change and in their ability to deal with people.  Further, younger team members did not see their leaders as decisive enough, while those 40 to 54 years of age did not feel their leaders were self-aware and authentic, with team members beyond age 55 were not seeing their leaders effectively building relationships with their teams.

In a sentence – employees did not evaluate leaders well in dealing with people.


Shifts

To act with a leader’s mindset, there is a clear path of development to connect with your people. Significantly, we all have the same four expectations of our leaders – across the generations, we have a shared belief in what actions leaders should take to earn our engagement and investment.

We want you to delegate to and empower us, provide the resources needed for us to succeed, build and lead effective teams, and generate business results.

How you make that happen needs to be different than in the past.

There have been two significant changes in our society that have an impact on what we expect in our leaders. The conversion of a production (or manufacturing) economy to a knowledge economy requires a greater degree of collaboration and flexibility in how we work. Being creative does not respond well to directions and procedure. As well, as the family unit has shifted in the past 50 years from a strong paternal family unit to more of a sibling-based unit, employees want a more interactive and participative work environment. If you asked a group of people even 25 years ago how many were raised in a family with a main male breadwinner, typically 80% of the group would respond yes. The answer to the same question today would generate a yes from between 10% to 15% of the group. The family unit has changed and the Millennial generation, (those workers born after 1982), grew up being involved and participating in family decision-making. They are also used to getting what they want now.

The impact for successfully acting as a leader today is that there is a greater need for a more interactive and participative approach. We want to be asked and involved.

There are six key shifts to make in the workplace and adapt the leader’s mindset:

1. We expect balance and synergy in the workplace – we are not going to work excessive hours to the extent that work is our life
   
   • As a leader, you focus on providing flexible hours and understand the commitments of your team and how to design the workflow to provide the best working environment for them to be engaged and not stressed.
2. We expect our work to be a cause – we want our organizations to be more than profits and production, we want something higher that the organization is involved with
   
   • As a leader, you show heart by making your business be about something other than the product or service – choose a cause that is important to people in their community and come together to help – green is hugely important to people, focus on the environment.
3. We expect personal growth and development – if you don’t help us grow and learn, we’ll go elsewhere
   
   • As a leader, you understand the strengths of your team members, support them to see where they can grow, and provide (and pay) for training and development to help them reach their potential.
4. We expect partnership – we want to be asked for our insights and be involved, not directed and told
   
   • As a leader, you ask first – even if you have the answer already, ask for input to build engagement and investment (if we are involved in getting to the solution, we invest much more effectively).
5. We expect community at work – we want to know the people we work with and have a connection with them
   
   • As a leader, you support your team members to know each other socially as well as professionally with activities that allow people to relax together and understand each other better.
6. We expect trust – we want leaders to communicate openly, honestly and consistently, no more closed doors
   
   • As a leader, you let your team members know the strategic progress and the reasoning for decisions (even if it is not perfect – or even good – we will help if you involve us) as employees simply want to know how things stand.

Honestly assess how you are working today and interacting with your teams and organization and ask if you are providing the type of interactive and meaningful environment employees want today. What shifts in leadership style are needed?


Progress

If you want to have a sustainable positive impact on your business and community, work with a leader’s mindset. Employees want leaders who make work more meaningful. Leaders need to balance being consultative with being decisive. Leaders who don’t make the shifts employees want will pay the price and lose their competitive advantage.

“The leader of the past knew how to tell, the leader of the future will know how to ask.”
Peter Drucker

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