The Leadership Pendulum

March 28, 2013 by

The-Leadership-Pendulum-Sandro-da-SilvaDilemmas are part of a leader’s routine. Should you follow your own gut feeling or should you listen to what others say? Should you offer the market what you want to sell or should you offer what the market says it wants? Should you tell your team members what to do or should you allow them to make their own decisions?

As you can see, the questions above are either-or questions, and choosing one option automatically excludes the other. If you approach your leadership challenges this way (many of us do),  you are always confronted with the risk of choosing one option at the expense of the other. That evokes fear in you, and sometimes so much fear that it paralyzes you and disturbs you with anxiety and stress.

My experience as an executive coach has shown me that there is a way-out. Leaders profit when they realize that the two options they see are only extremes of a continuum. They feel empowered when they discover that there are many more options, many more shades of grey (50 I have heard), between the black and white extremes the normally see.

That’s when I came up with the idea of The Leadership Pendulum. The Leadership Pendulum is a tool that helps leaders become  aware of what other possibilities there are between the two extremes they at the moment see. Moving from one extreme to the other,  leaders are invited to translate what the different pendulum positions mean to their current challenge. After translating what those different positions mean, they decide which best to use or implement.

Leaders profit when they realize that the two options they see are only extremes of a continuum. “~ Sandro da Silva Tweet this!

It’s no rocket science. Try it yourself:

  1. Take a blank piece of paper and draw a pendulum on it.
  2. Think about a challenge you are facing at this moment, which you experience as an either-or situation, a dilemma.
  3. Now write down either option at one extreme of the pendulum’s trajectory.
  4. Start now moving the pendulum away from one extreme towards the other extreme. Stop at different places in the pendulum’s trajectory and translate into words what that position means to your challenge. Carry on until you have reached the other extreme.
  5. Reflect on your options, make a choice and act.

The Leadership Pendulum has proven to be very useful in a variety of situations. I invite you to try it a few times and share your experience here. My clients usually say that it frees them from the conflict and the stress of dilemma, and allows to reconcile two options that seemed mutually exclusive. That makes them feel comfortable and at ease, and I hope it does the same to you.

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Leadership: Do You Practice What You Preach?

March 12, 2012 by

Leadership ValuesBeing a leader is certainly not an easy job. As a leader, you have to deal with high levels of responsibility and pressure. Expectations are very high, no matter where they come from.

Take the expectations of those who you lead, for example: they expect you to motivate, inspire and guide them. They want you to be courageous, wise, fair and credible. They turn to you when no one knows what to do. They look up to you and hope you are the one who does the right thing. It may sound like a lot, but that’s what for them – justifies your high salary.

If you fulfill those expectations, chances are that the influence you exert is big. And influence is crucial in gaining your team’s willingness to coordinate their efforts towards organizational goals. As I write this article, Harvard Business Review coincidentally posts an article written by Linda A. Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham, which links trust to influence, and reinforces what I have just said. (This synchronicity scares me, by the way)

If you were a leader in the 1990’s, I’d probably present you a list of motivational and inspirational techniques to help you better influence your team. Times have changed, though. These days, your team has read the same books you’ve read (or even more!). Information has become more accessible, and workers more independent and emancipated. They know the “tricks” and don’t fall for them anymore.

Nowadays, your team looks much more at who you are and what you do. They observe how you make your decisions and pay attention to the choices you make. They judge your behavior, evaluate your performance and decide for themselves whether you deserve to be followed or not. And while they may agree with you in public, they might disagree with you once you turn your back and leave the meeting room.

If tricks don’t work in this emancipated and extremely demanding work environment anymore, what is it that makes your team follow you and dedicate their time and effort in helping you achieve your company’s organizational goals? How do you get all the vectors to point to the same direction? How on earth do you win your team’s commitment?

This is when your company’s Core Values play an important role. Core Values are, in our ever changing and demanding times, a constant which you can use to guide you in your behavior, your choices and your decisions. Core Values are the laws that rule every employee in the company, from the receptionist to the C-level executive like you.

But how exactly do Core Values help you? Here’s one example: instead of making decisions based on a pros-cons equation, try letting your options be guided by your company’s Core Values. Ask yourself which course of action complies with those Values. Or try to see which action those Values ask from you in this situation. When you finally see that your choice agrees with those Values and translates them, take it. Otherwise, leave it.

Using your company’s Core Values to guide you makes your job a lot easier. It helps you put an end to your dilemmas, prevents you from making bad choices and from letting your own personal interests play a role in your decisions. Consequently, your team sees you as a trustworthy, fair, reliable, credible and consistent person. They become more open and approachable, and more willing to cooperate.

However simple it may sound, do not be trapped by the illusion that this is easy. It’s not! Just to give you an example, imagine Respect is one of your company’s Core Values. If you choose to act accordingly, you must show Respect in everything you do and say, continuously and repeatedly – every day. Core Values are not something you set and achieve, they are something you practice.

You may even realize that you must reprimand or punish someone’s behavior if it contradicts your company’s Core Values – fire someone who has been disrespectful to his secretary, for example. You must act like a sentinel, who protects and defends your company’s Core Values, and makes sure they are practiced at all levels. So above as below.

Are you ready to be a personalization of your company’s Core Values? Are you ready to practice what you preach?

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